Aspen is a place for leaders to lift their sights above the possessions which possess them. To confront their own nature as human beings, to regain control over their own humanity by becoming more self-aware, more self-correcting, and hence more self-fulfilling.
MIC is a project to inform, strengthen, and accelerate the efforts of microenterprise finance organizations that are committed to significantly increasing the impact of their work.
BOI’s Microfinance Impact Collaborative works to strengthen and accelerate the efforts of US microenterprise finance organizations committed to significantly increasing the scale and impact of their work. Comprised of six of the largest community microlenders – Allies for Community Business, Ascendus, DreamSpring, Justine PETERSEN, LiftFund, and Accion Opportunity Fund – the collaborative provides its members with a venue and mechanism for collective learning and action.
Since forming in 2015, members of the Microfinance Impact Collaborative — organizations known as community development financial institutions, or CDFIs — have shared innovations and challenges related to growing their microenterprise finance work, focusing on topics including underwriting, capitalization strategies, nonbank alternative lenders, the changing market context, the role of technology, and building the organizational capacity to innovate and grow. BOI and the collaborative members have shared the lessons from their work through publications and events, including those listed below. In 2020, the work of the collaborative resulted in the creation of Scale Link, a new nonprofit working to build a secondary market for CDFI microloans.
Entrepreneur Backed Assets Fund
The Entrepreneur Backed Assets (EBA) Fund will strengthen the capacity of community-based financial institutions to lend to small businesses in low-income communities and those owned by people of color.
