MICROFINANCE 2011 - Microfinance USA 2011 Conference o

Website www.microfinanceusaconference.org | Edit Freely

Category MICROFINANCE 2011

Deadline: May 01, 2011 | Date: May 23, 2011-May 24, 2011

Venue/Country: New York, U.S.A

Updated: 2010-12-19 09:10:31 (GMT+9)

Call For Papers - CFP

In response to requests from the U.S. microfinance field to host the conference in different locations around the country, Microfinance USA will convene in New York in 2011 for the first time. Individuals, organizations, and funders on the East Coast will have the opportunity to engage with domestic microfinance and deepen the movement nationally. We expect the same energy and turnout demonstrated at our last conference, which brought together 700-800 investors, policymakers, social entrepreneurs, practitioners, students and microfinance enthusiasts to explore microfinance strategies and practices unique to the United States.

Join the exciting opportunity to attend Microfinance USA’s first year in New York City.

MICROFINANCE USA TEAM

Executive Producer: Opportunity Fund

Producer: ACCION

Associate Producer: Kiva

Program Advisory Committee:

Elaine Edgcomb, Director, FIELD, The Aspen Institute

Azish Filabi, Counsel, Federal Reserve Bank of New York (Legal Group)

Gina Harman, President and CEO, ACCION USA

Giovanna Masci, Regional Director, The Americas, Kiva

Lisa Mensah, Executive Director, IFS, The Aspen Institute

Elisabeth Rhyne, Managing Director, Center for Financial Inclusion, ACCION International Chair

Shaolee Sen, Marketing and Communications Director, Opportunity Fund

Jennifer Tescher, Director, Center for Financial Services Innovation

Eric Weaver, CEO, Opportunity Fund

Hilary Wilson, Silicon Valley Microfinance Network

Opportunity Fund is one of the largest providers of microloans and microsavings in the nation. Since making our first loan in 1995, Opportunity Fund has directed $172 million in community investment into the San Francisco Bay Area’s economically challenged neighborhoods, improving the lives of 12,000 households. Our mission is to advance the economic well-being of working people by helping them earn, save, and invest in their future. Our mix of products and programs, including real estate lending, enables us to take a comprehensive approach to community economic development, providing opportunities for people at each stage of the progression from poverty to self-sufficiency.

ACCION the leading microfinance network in the U.S., provides essential lending and financial education opportunities to small businesses nationwide. By empowering self-starters and creating jobs, ACCION elevates communities and fuels the economy from the ground up. Since 1991, ACCION has provided 35,000 loans?more than half of all microloans in the U.S.?to hardworking entrepreneurs and families lacking access to fairly priced capital. A champion of low-to-moderate income business owners, ACCION is committed to driving domestic microfinance and innovation forward to give millions of people a stake in the American Dream.

Kiva is the world’s first person-to-person micro-lending website, empowering individuals to lend directly to an entrepreneur in the developing world. By combining microfinance with the internet, Kiva is creating a global community of people connected through lending. Kiva’s mission is to connect people, through lending, for the sake of alleviating poverty. In 2009, Kiva launched in the U.S. with two partner organizations, Opportunity Fund and ACCION, making person to person lending accessible to US entrepreneurs for the first time. Kiva will have facilitated loans totaling $100 million by 2010.