Introduction The Calvert Social Investment Foundation* builds upon the work of the Calvert Group by lending to Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs) and Micro-Finance Institutions (MFIs) at below-market rates. Calvert Foundation's overall goal is to help establish Community Investment - below-market investments into non-profit intermediaries - as a new asset class in the financial services industry. Calvert Foundation serves as a facility for individuals and institutions seeking to channel investment into disadvantaged communities with a simple goal - to help end poverty. We believe that one critical constraint to growth of this industry is the scarcity of independent third party information available to private investors about the performance of CDFIs and MFIs. To address this matter we have created descriptive and financial profiles for a number of CDFIs and other community-based organizations that we have invested in through the portfolios we administer. The following selected international micro-finance prorgams were profiled in the To Our Credit program, and are taken from a field of 28 profiles currently available from Calvert Foundation:** 1. Accion International (Latin America) 2. Grameen Trust (Worldwide) We hope that this resource will prove useful to socially-motivated individuals, institutions, and community-based organizations in increasing awareness of, and investment in, non-profit lenders - so that these groups can continue their work to end poverty both in the U.S. and abroad. All 28 of our current profiles, along with additional information about the Calvert Foundation's programs, are available on our website, www.calvertgroup.com/foundation/CIPindex.htm, or by calling the Foundation at 800-248-0337. The 28 available profiles are: Accion International Boston Community Capital Cascadia Revolving Fund Central City Concern Chicago Comm. Loan Fund Coastal Enterprises, Inc. DE Valley Comm. Reinvestment Fund Ecumenical Devt. Cooperative Society Fed of Appalacian Housing Ent. Foundation for Int'l Comm. Assist Grameen Trust Inst. for Comm. Economics Low Income Housing Fund Manna, Inc. McAuley Institute Mercy Loan Fund Nonprofit Facilities Fund Northcountry Coop. Devt Fund Northeast Entrepreneur Fund NE South Dakota Economic Corp Northern CA Community Loan Fund Rural Comm. Assistance Corp. Self-Help Ventures Fund Shared Interest ShoreBank Enterprise, Pacific Vermont Comm. Loan Fund Women's Self-Employment Project Working Capital * About Calvert Foundation: Community Investment can help impoverished families, even whole communities, work their way into jobs, homes and dignity. What if you could help finance a daycare or community center in your area . . . build affordable housing across the country . . . or provide the capital for a woman in Bolivia to start a small bakery and take her family out of poverty? You can. >From Bangor, Maine to Bangladesh, Calvert Social Investment Foundation enables individuals and institutions to place critical investment capital with microcredit, affordable housing, small business and community development non-profit lenders. These programs use common sense, basic economics and human compassion to help change thousands of lives every day. Through our investing we become essential partners with the disadvantaged communities and entrepreneurs using this capital to create their own opportunity. Calvert Foundation (a non-profit 501c3) was started when Calvert Group, the mutual fund company that helped pioneer the concept of socially responsible investing, teamed-up with the Ford, MacArthur and Mott Foundations. Calvert Foundation serves as a facility for individuals and institutions seeking to channel investment into disadvantaged communities with a simple goal - to help end poverty. It is an affiliated, but seperate legal entity from Calvert Group - and it's products and services should not be confused with any Calvert Group product. Calvert Foundation offers a range of professional community investment products and services oriented toward the investor. Individual and institutional clients benefit from security enhancements, diversification, rigorous due diligence and portfolio monitoring. Through a more than $16 million portfolio of investments into 75 non-profit lenders worldwide, Calvert Foundation is able to offer superior and tailored service for community investment needs - no matter how simple or complex. ** About Community Investment Profiles: The 28 profiles currently available from Calvert Foundation are based on information provided to Calvert Foundation for monitoring purposes and were prepared by MBA Interns Susan Harper and Jinai Holmes, in cooperation with each non-profit group. Each profile highlights the organization's programs, describes a brief "success story," and summarizes relevant financial characteristics. All featured profiles are for informational purposes only. They were developed in cooperation with, and with information provided by, each respective non-profit group. Calvert Foundation may invest in any or all of the above, but listing herein should not be construed as a recommendation for any outside individual or institution to invest in these groups. Information in the financial profiles presented is based on audited financial statements from each of the profiled organizations for 1997, 1996, and 1995. Line items and totals were simply re-organized by the Calvert Foundation to fit a common format. Audited statements are available from the organizations directly. _________________________________________________________ Acción International Lending: M, SB Contact: Robin Ratcliffe, Vice President of Communications email: info@accion.org 120 Beacon Street www.accion.org Somerville, MA 02143 Phone: (617) 492-4930, Fax: (617) 876-9509 ACCION International is a private non-profit organization dedicated to reducing poverty and unemployment in the Americas by providing credit and other financial services to microentrepreneurs. An international leader in the field, ACCIÓN is an umbrella organization for a network of microfinance institutions in 13 Latin American countries and seven U.S. cities. ACCIÓN seeks to ensure the long term availability of microcredit by helping its associated institutions to achieve large scale operation and financial self-sufficiency, and to access lending capital from the international financial markets. The ACCIÓN Bridge Funds capitalize investments from individuals, institutions and churches. These funds are used to guarantee the lending activities of ACCIÓN's associates, allowing them to lend millions more dollars each year. In the last six years, the ACCIÓN Network has loaned over $1.7 billion to more than 1.4 million people with a loss rate of approximately two percent. Background ACCIÓN was founded in 1961 to help the poor help themselves through community development projects. Concerned that it was not addressing the root cause of poverty-lack of economic opportunity- ACCIÓN began experimenting with microlending in 1973, in Recife, Brazil. Today, ACCIÓN is one of the world's leading microfinance organizations, with a network of lending affiliates in 350 locations in Latin America and the United States. In 1996, ACCION's U.S. Network was one of the recipients of the first-ever Presidential Awards for Excellence in Microenterprise Development. ACCIÓN also received the Mildred Robbins Leet Award for the Advancement of Women. Programs ACCIÓN provides small, short-term loans at fair rates of interest to poor and low-income business owners who cannot access credit from traditional sources. In 1997, the ACCIÓN Network loaned $506 million in loans ranging from $100 to $25,000. At year-end, the Network had 342,105 active clients. ACCIÓN seeks to help its affiliates reach a significant percentage of the target population in the communities in which they work. It also works to help its affiliates achieve financial self-sufficiency, so that they will not remain perennially dependent upon donations and can become a permanent resource for the poor. ACCIÓN's Latin America and U.S. Bridge Funds are capitalized with loans and donations from individuals, churches and institutions throughout the United States. Working with local banks, the Bridge Funds guarantee the ACCIÓN Network's lending activities. A loan of $10,000 to the Latin America Bridge Fund can provide up to $87,800 in microloans, averaging $575, to approximately 155 Latin American entrepreneurs each year. Each $10,000 loaned to the U.S. Bridge Fund allows ACCIÓN's U.S. programs to make $51,000 in loans to U.S. microentrepreneurs annually. Client Population ACCIÓN's affiliates serve seven U.S. cities (New York, NY; Albuquerque, NM; Chicago, IL; San Diego, CA; San Antonio, McAllen and El Paso, TX) and 13 Latin American countries (Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru). ACCIÓN's Latin American clients are poor, self-employed men and women who rely on their microenterprise as their main source of income. These individuals range from the very poor to those who have some assets but remain marginalized from the mainstream economy and society. Many are among the poorest of the world's people at the time of their first loan. ACCION's U.S. clients are low and moderate income people who have their own businesses but are economically marginalized and have no access to bank loans. Most rely on their microbusinesses for at least 50 % of their family income. They operate their business from home, the street or a small storefront. Management The President & CEO of ACCION International is Michael Chu. Deborah Drake is the Senior Director of the Latin America Bridge Fund and Livingston Parsons is the Senior Director of the U.S. Bridge Fund. ACCION has a 22-member Board of Directors; 23% are women and 18% are minority. ACCION has a total of 72 employees, 55% are minority and 75% are women. Management is 44% minority, 55% female. Impact In the last six years, the Acción Network has loaned over $1.7 billion to more than 1.4 million microentrepreneurs, bettering the lives of an estimated five million people. In 1997 alone, the U.S. Network lent $3.5 million to more than 1000 people, and the Latin American Network lent $503 million to more than 340,000 people. After one year with an ACCION affiliate in Latin America, clients' family income increases an average of 30%. This translates into such basic improvements as better nutrition, running water and money for school. In the U.S., a three-year ACCION study of 849 clients released in April 1998 reveals that after two loans over 17 months, take home income increased 38% or an average of $455 per month. Low-income ACCION borrowers saw take-home income jump 54%, an average of $515 monthly. Looking Forward ACCION expects its network to have loaned $4.3 billion to a total of 2.2 million people by the end of 2000. Active clients are projected to be 580,000 and active portfolio $485 million. In total, ACCION estimates that 11 million people will have benefited from ACCION loans by December 31, 2000. "La Tienda de Lina" At 63, Lina Mercedes Zambrano is the main breadwinner in her family. She earns the money by running a variety store in her living room - a small, crowded space stacked high with goods. Lina works from seven in the morning until midnight every day of the week. To get supplies, she travels an hour by bus to the central market in Cartagena, where she loads up as many plastic shopping bags as she can carry with thread, soap, toys, and other essentials. Despite its small size, Lina's store earns enough to support her, her husband and her handicapped daughter. It wasn't always this way. Lina started her store six years ago with $20 she had saved. She bought some plastic toys and set them out on the porch in a little display cabinet that her husband made for her from scrap lumber. When the toys had sold, Lina bought some more, yet the business hardly grew. Without money to buy more goods, Lina enterprise only yielded $200 a year. A series of loans from the Fundación Mario Santo Domingo, Acción's local lending associate, changed that. Starting with a loan of $150, Lina expanded her inventory and moved the store into her living room. With money to invest in her business, she could also offer special services to meet her neighbors' needs, such as buying on credit. Soon, sales increased and so did profits: since she began borrowing from the Fundación, Lina's profits have grown by about $100 every eight months. Today Lina is paying off an $800 loan, the fourth she has borrowed. The Fundación also helped Lina by teaching her basic business tools, such as inventory control and accounting, using pictorial explanations. "I don't know how to read but I still took the course," Lina says. Lina's earnings have allowed her to save money for the first time in her life. "Here almost no women put money in the bank, but I have my savings," she says. "Every time I go to pay the loan I put $5 or $10 in the account." Lina proudly displays her passbook that she keeps in her purse. She now has nearly $250 in savings - more than she earned in an entire year. _________________________________________________________ Grameen Trust Lending: M Contact: Professor H.I. Latifee www.grameen.com Mirpur Two email: g_trust@grameen.net Dhaka 1216 Bangladesh Phone: 880-2-803-559; Fax: 880-2-806-319 Grameen Trust (GT) was founded in 1989, with the objective of helping organizations and individuals to set up Grameen Bank-type loan programs in other countries. GT's goal is to reduce poverty on a global level by mobilizing financial and technical resources to support income-generating activities. GT provides funding and technical assistance for programs that reduce poverty and benefit the poor throughout the world, especially women. GT has provided more than $5 million to 66 replication projects in twenty-five countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America. Background Twenty years ago, Professor Muhammad Yunus established the Grameen Bank to provide credit to very poor women. The results were extraordinary: 2.5 billion dollars have been distributed to over 2 million families with a repayment rate of 98%. As a result of the success of the Grameen Bank, Grameen Trust was established in 1989 to meet the demand for training, technical assistance and financial support to start Grameen-type loan programs in other countries. Grameen Trust's objectives are to: * support and promote programs to reduce poverty modeled on the Grameen Bank; * offer training and technical assistance to national and international organizations replicating GB programs; * publish books and periodicals that make information about Grameen replication, and the Trust's Grameen Bank Replication Program more widely available; * build an international network of people and institutions working on poverty alleviation; * conduct research and undertake and/or encourage experimentation to find ways of bringing about socio-economic changes in the lives of the poor; and * organize and operate projects or enterprises that help increase employment, income or management skills of the poor. Programs Grameen Bank Replication Program (GBRP): GT supports and promotes Grameen Bank replication projects around the world. In addition to International Dialogue Programs, training and technical assistance, GT provides published materials for training and exchange of information based on the experiences of the replication programs. GT also provides low-interest loans to selected projects and monitors their performance. Program for Research on Poverty Alleviation: Among GT's objectives for this program are to * define a research agenda that is relevant to the grassroots of Bangladesh * provide funds for Bangladeshi research on poverty alleviation and the poor; and * develop creative ways of delivering research findings to policy makers and the people The Program has so far received 350 project proposals on credit, health and nutrition, gender issues, environmental issues, social and economic issues, social and economic policies, poultry and livestock, horticulture, social forestry, etc. and approved 118 projects for funding. The Program has sponsored 28 seminars/ workshops and has started a Library which already contains over 3,500 publications. Computer Services Program GT has setup a Computer Services Unit to impart knowledge and provide services to the Grameen network worldwide. Client Population GT supports programs which reach the poorest of the poor, especially women, throughout the world. Management Professor H.I Latifee is Managing Director of GT. He has worked informally with the Bank since 1976. Mr. Obaidul Haque, formerly of the UNDP, is the Assistant General Manger. There are seven members of the Board of Trustees. Professor Muhammad Yunus is Chairman. Impact As of October 1997, GT has provided $5.2 million to 66 projects in 25 countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America. Looking Forward In February 1997, the Microcredit Summit set a goal to reach 100 million of the worlds poorest families, especially the women of those families, with credit and other financial services by 2005. Grameen Trust is committed to reach 10 million poor families, or one-tenth of the Summit's goal. Over the next six years, GT intends to support 500 Grameen Bank-type projects with funding. GT is expanding its national and international network by bringing new individuals and organizations into the field of poverty alleviation. GT believes that with the participation of all there will be a day when the world will be free from the indignity of poverty and hunger. Lasting Solutions to Poverty-The Story of Joite Joite and her daughter had been living day to day, with barely enough to eat. With the help of a $50 loan from the Grameen Bank of Bangladesh, Joite was able to buy a goat and sell the milk in the market. "Before, I was living with my daughter under a tree by the road. I had nothing. Nothing! Grameen helped my change my life." After paying back her first loan, Joite took out a second loan and bought another goat. Today, after a lot of hard work and determination, Joite has a house, a cow, several goats, a fishpond, a husband and a growing family. And because they can now afford it, Joite's children can look forward to attending school. "To us, it's like a miracle...we are happy and alive." ________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________ To view all of the above information, and 25 additional profiles, visit: www.calvertgroup.com/foundation/CIPindex.htm CONTACT: Calvert Social Investment Foundation 4550 Montgomery Avenue Bethesda, MD 20814 800-248-0337 301-654-2960 fax www.calvertgroup.com/foundation foundation@calvertgroup.com NOTE: The 28 profiles currently available from Calvert Foundation are based on information provided to Calvert Foundation for monitoring purposes and were prepared by MBA Interns Susan Harper and Jinai Holmes, in cooperation with each non-profit group. Each profile highlights the organization's programs, describes a brief "success story," and summarizes relevant financial characteristics. All featured profiles are for informational purposes only. They were developed in cooperation with, and with information provided by, each respective non-profit group. Calvert Foundation may invest in any or all of the above, but listing herein should not be construed as a recommendation for any outside individual or institution to invest in these groups. Information in the financial profiles presented is based on audited financial statements from each of the profiled organizations for 1997, 1996, and 1995. Line items and totals were simply re-organized by the Calvert Foundation to fit a common format. Audited statements are available from the organizations directly.