Alex Counts
Excerpt
Microfinance and the Backlash
An excerpt from the new edition of Small Loans, Big Dreams on microfinance since the Nobel.
Review
Embrace the Process
Cynthia Rayner and François Bonnici recommend that organizations seeking systems change focus less on outcomes and more on principles and practice.
Excerpt
Leading in a Time of Crisis
Advice for nonprofit managers on playing the long game when the world turns upside down.
Spotting and Fixing Dysfunctional Nonprofit Boards
Micromanaging, rubber stamp, and Balkanized nonprofit boards of directors are more common than not, and turning them into high-functioning governing bodies requires being on the alert for six warning signs.
How and Why to Shut Down a Successful Nonprofit
A nonprofit that finds itself in a position of strength amid a rapidly changing world may do more for social change by handing its assets to another organization better equipped to navigate the future.
How 11 Humanitarian Organizations Collaborated to Strengthen Indian Americans’ Giving and Impact
Two years after nearly a dozen India-focused organizations in the United States began discussing how they could combine forces, they have launched the India Philanthropy Alliance and revealed insights into making complex collaborations work.
Social Innovations
Reimagining Microfinance
Critics of microfinance institutions (MFIs) ask them to choose between helping the poor or making money for investors, but this is a false choice. MFIs can have their impact and profit, too, says the author, the CEO of the Grameen Foundation. He sketches a new vision of microfinance as a platform, not a product; one that relies on high volumes, not high margins, and that uses limits on private benefit, holistic performance standards, and third-party certification to help MFIs meet both their bottom lines.