FMO cites Global Partnerships’ focus on microfinance-plus programs, social impact

Seattle, WA -- (ReleaseWire) -- 04/15/2011 -- Global Partnerships (GP), a Seattle-based nonprofit that invests in microfinance and other sustainable poverty solutions, and the Netherlands Development Finance Company (FMO), a leading European development bank, announced today that FMO has invested $4.4 million in GP’s Social Investment Fund (SIF 2010). SIF 2010 is a $25 million fund (including FMO’s investment) that makes loans to exceptional microfinance institutions in Latin America.

“We are honored by FMO’s participation in our fund, which reflects our combined leadership in expanding opportunity for people living in poverty,” said Mark Coffey, chief investment officer for GP. “Thanks to this investment, we will be able to increase our support of outstanding, mission-aligned organizations that in turn will be able to provide more microloans and other tools to help people progress out of poverty.”

“FMO is very pleased to participate in this fund. SIF 2010 helps fill the financing gap for smaller Latin American microfinance institutions, for which funding remains scarce despite large inflows in the microfinance sector at large,” said FMO’s chief investment officer, Jurgen Rigterink. “The fund has the high level of social impact we look for in our investments, as it seeks out institutions that provide ‘microfinance-plus’ programs. This way, both the client and the community benefit.”

Social Investment Fund 2010 (SIF 2010), Global Partnerships’ fourth fund, is a five-year debt fund that makes affordable loans to select microfinance organizations (MFIs) and cooperatives in Latin America. With this fund, GP has prioritized organizations that reach people most in need of credit, such as the rural poor, and which provide borrowers with not just microloans but “microfinance-plus” services such as preventive health care, business education and agricultural training. Seventy-five percent of organizations funded by SIF 2010 must provide borrowers with non-financial services beyond microloans.

FMO joins 39 other socially motivated investors that have invested in SIF 2010, including two U.S. development banks, foundations, faith-based institutions and accredited individual investors. Investors receive moderate, fixed-income financial returns, as well as high social returns, over the life of the fund.

As of March 31, 2011, Global Partnerships had disbursed $9 million of the fund’s capital to 11 organizations in seven countries, including five new partners to GP. GP is on track to disburse all of SIF 2010’s capital to up to 25 partners by early 2012. It will fund an estimated 300,000 microloans over its five-year lifespan.

About Global Partnerships
Global Partnerships (GP) is a Seattle- and Managua-based nonprofit that expands opportunity for people living in poverty. As of December 31, 2010, GP had $37.9 million in capital invested in 27 microfinance partners, which serve 874,000 borrowers. Find out more at http://www.globalpartnerships.org. Also see this backgrounder (pdf) on SIF 2010.

About the Netherlands Development Finance Company (FMO)
FMO is the international entrepreneurial bank of the Netherlands. FMO invests risk capital in companies and financial institutions in developing countries. With an investment portfolio of EUR 5.3 billion, FMO is one of the largest bilateral private sector development banks worldwide. Thanks in part to its relationship with the Dutch government, FMO is able to take risks which commercial financiers are not - or not yet - prepared to take. FMO's mission: to create flourishing enterprises, which can serve as engines of sustainable growth in their countries.