Dear Bill and Melinda... my letter to the Gates Foundation

The following is a letter I recently wrote to Bill and Melinda Gates in response to their "call to action" to the world's Billionaires to give away half their fortunes:

Dear Bill and Melinda,
I have enjoyed watching your efforts (along with Warren Buffet’s) over the past year to inspire the “Billionaires Club” to give away half of their wealth to charity. What an incredibly noble and impactful vision! I wish you the best of luck in this worthy endeavor and am happy to see your strategy is working with so many in such a short amount of time.

I am also excited to see the two of you traveling the world, pointing out diseases that your foundation is working hard to eradicate: AIDS, Malaria and Polio just to name a few. Someday, these may be diseases we only read about in history books because of your work. A vision to change the world for the better is an amazing thing and I applaud both of you for it! Recently, I have also noticed your foundation beginning to direct funds toward microfinance. While wiping out and eventually totally eradicating diseases is hugely important, I can’t imagine anything more sustainable and noble than trying to wipe out another horrible disease. One which is passed from generation to generation and is the root cause of so many ills in this world: the disease of poverty.

Through microfinance you are helping the poor help themselves. By making small loans in the developing world, you give millions of the poor access to working capital to start and expand their small businesses. These are banking services and credit which have traditionally been denied them by more traditional banking institutions; you are giving them the tools necessary to sustainably feed, clothe and educate their families. One additional and perhaps more overlooked aspect that is not as measurable (but just as powerful) is you are giving the poor both hope and dignity. Better yet, you are helping them discover within themselves their worth as human beings when they are getting a “hand-up” rather than a “hand-out.”

I have personally seen the miracle of microfinance in 8 countries and on 4 continents around the world and continue to be astonished at the amazing work ethic and absolute brilliance of micro-entrepreneurs in some of the poorest nations on earth. From the woman living on the northern coast of Haiti who separates salt from seawater in massive pools (that she dug herself) to sell the salt in the spice market… to the poor Bedouin woman living in the desolate Negev Desert in the south of Israel who opened her own convenience store to sell toiletries and other necessities to the local villagers and herdsmen. Not only are they caring for their families, but when I asked both women what the future held for them, they had big… BIG plans! From the man in Vietnam who used his microloan to buy and raise livestock and vegetables in a garden to sell in the market… that even raises fish in a large pond he dug in the backyard behind his hut to sell for food. To the Rwandan woman who was homeless with 4 children who ate one meal a day and couldn’t send her kids to school… that borrowed USD $50 to buy fish at the river, smoke it in her hut and sell it in the market. Now she feeds her family two meals a day and has them all in school... and has adopted two more children! This is IMPACTFUL!!! They ALL… every single one of them… have the EXACT same look in their eyes and on their faces: DIGNITY. And I am realizing on each trip that if we pity the poor, we rob them of that dignity.

However, things are not where they need to be. For every person in the world who is utilizing a microloan and paying it back (and it is still hard for me to believe that after 35 years of microfinance, the default rate is still BELOW 2 %!) there are 10 other hopeful micro-entrepreneurs who could do the same but still lack access to credit and banking services.

Enter what I have affectionately penned “MICROFINANCE 2.0” (I thought you’d like that, Bill). Microfinance 2.0 is the next evolution in microfinance… moving from the donor-driven world where only USD $40BB has been raised in 35 years and is circulating (and the need is over $300BB) to the world of investments. A world where the capital is engaged to provide funding for micro-entrepreneurs. Enter the new frontier of the MIV.

A MIV is a Microfinance Investment Vehicle, which ranges anywhere from ETF’s to Mutual Funds to Private Equity to Hedge funds of which more than 100 exist today. MIV’s don’t take donations from well-meaning philanthropists but rather they take actual investment dollars and invest that money directly into Microfinance Institutions (MFI) around the world… whether it is through debt issuance or direct equity investment in the MFI’s themselves. This changes the game not only for the poor but for the investors as they receive a nice return on their SRI (Socially Responsible Investment) money; additionally they help the poor help all over the world! A win-win if I’ve ever seen one!

So, Bill and Melinda, please consider setting a great example by investing in MIV’s. Then go on your own “Billionaires Club Road show 2.0” and inspire your fellow club members to INVEST some of their fortune in microfinance! As sustainable as this is, their wealth will GROW while helping eliminate poverty! So that many more generations of their family and their wealth can help and be the end of so many ills in our world…. Today and for years to come!

Warm Regards,

Mark D. Robeson
President
Global Microfinance Partners
www.globalmicrofinancepartners.com

CLT | The Epicenter of Microfinance in the coming global movement

Charlotte, North Carolina, USA. A sleepy southern town in 1980 became the 2nd largest banking center in the United States by the year 2000. Second only to New York... arguably the largest financial center the world has ever known. But Charlotte attracted brilliant minds, hard working bankers and philanthropic minded citizens over the 20 years that shaped it into the financial powerhouse that it is today.

In the early 1990's, Silicon Vally, CA (San Jose Metro) quickly became the epicenter of all that was dot-com. If you came up with a reason to do any kind of commerce on the new tool that was the world wide web, Silicon Valley was the Nirvana of that new economy. You started a dot-com, then dump trucks of money from venture capitalists were lining up outside of your door to dump as much money as they could find to pour into your new dot-com idea. Literally, if you could think of an idea to make money on this new tool for commerce, you were in business... literally. Climbing walls, champagne brunches and 24/7 ping pong for twenty-something nerds became normal and something to aspire to.

Now the world has changed... once again. Dot coms are no longer the "cool" investment... instead dot-coms are how the world works. Now boring and the way things are. Then, sub-prime mortgages took charge. Soon after, Al Gore wrote "An Inconvenient Truth" and the "Green" movement was born. Throughout the 2000's every asset manager, energy company and liberal minded American had to be involved in saving the Environment. Billions of dollars poured into this socially responsible investment movement. Imagine that.

So... in steps microfinance in the 2010's. The next "new, new thing." But this time, something sustainable and long-lasting and something that helps billions... BILLIONS of people out of poverty. And a fortune to made by ending poverty. Crazy, huh? VC capital chased the dot-coms, the sub-primes and the green movement. And now VC money is looking for returns and some financial responsibility after watching the busts of the aforementioned "movements."

During the explosion of the financial services boom of 1990-2010, Charlotte became a banking center. A really big, surprising and exciting center for banking talent. Today, as Bank of America and Wells Fargo face the demons of the financial panic of 2008, there are thousands of brilliant financial minds that are out of work. Enter microfinance. From disaster comes opportunity. According to HSBC bank, current demand for microfinance in the developing world is ten times the current supply... what to do, what to do!?

It is my humble opinion that Charlotte is the epicenter of the coming global microfinance movement. VC money will follow so the more prepared you are for the coming dump-trucks to help solve poverty globally, the more prepared you will be to be not only a wonderful philanthropist but a very wealthy one overnight, for sure. Just watch. No, seriously, JUST WATCH. Or get started today: www.globalmicrofinancepartners.com

Microfinance in Haiti | Hope in the earthquake aftermath | January 2010

It's been two weeks since a 7.0 magnitude earthquake reduced the capitol of Haiti to rubble. Of a country with 9 million citizens; fully 1/3 are affected, displaced, homeless, injured or dead. The only city within the poorest country in the western hemisphere that had any semblance of infrastructure, a fully operating international airport and seaport has been totally destroyed.

And now, the exodus. As refugees flee the graveyard that was once bustling Port-au-Prince, it hearkens Americans memories back to Hurricane Katrina. A dark time in American history, Katrina not only changed the actual geography of bayou Louisiana and New Orleans but it created massive demographic shifts as well. The sleepy southern capitol of Baton Rouge, Louisiana became that state's largest city within weeks as refugees from New Orleans poured into it.

This type of demographic and population shift is now happening in Haiti. One hears of survivors filling the tent cities in the countryside surrounding Port-au-Prince.. but soon they will leave for other cities away from the devastation. They will be looking for jobs that aren't there and looking for food to feed their children, also in very short supply. It was not long ago that the New York Times reported about Haitien mother's making "dirt cookies" for their starving children for lack of real food. Imagine the scene today. Haiti's second-largest city, Cap Haitien is ill-prepared for this influx of humanity.

To make Haiti better, stronger, economically viable and stable the same old aid options are necessary for the next few weeks. But when CNN, the Red Cross, churches and other NGO's from around the world have left with the free medical care, food and clean water... what then for Haiti?

While the lens of the world is still on Haiti, it's time to begin direcing money to Haitien Microfinance. Once relief ends... true development can begin. Currently, the largest Microfinance Institution (MFI) in Haiti with 40 bank branches has 55,000 loan clients. Impressive until you realize the country has 9,000,000 people.

The 2010's can be a golden era in poverty alleviation once the business world and the church world "get" the power of giving a hand up to struggling people once the hand-out has already been delivered. Microfinance is that power. And when it works for Haiti, it will work for the rest of the world.

Currently 100 million people living in poverty worldwide are benefitting from micro-loans from MFI's to start businesses. $50, $100, $200 loans are changing lives for the better, forever. But according the the CEO of HSBC bank, demand for microfinance in the developing world is ten times that number. And that number multiplies exponentially when one sees how impoverished Haiti is in it's current state. Now and in the coming months is the time to re-allocate resources and money towards re-building Haiti from the ground up... one small business at a time.