en peacefulloflove@gmail.com Copyright 2010 2010-02-08T15:26:52+00:00 http://www.andyposner.org/index.php/posner/blog_main_comments/visiting_a_village_part_1/ http://www.andyposner.org/index.php/posner/blog_main_comments/visiting_a_village_part_1/#When:14:26:52Z Andy and Jill with a Grameen Bank Center Manager and Borrowers If you talk to anyone at Grameen Bank they will tell you that the real bank can only be found by going to the villages where Grameen operates.  Grameen, after all, means rural, and in fact by law Grameen can only operate its lending programs in the villages.  It is for this reason that on our third day in Bangladesh we--Jill, me, an Australian named Mark, our translator Matin and Mark’s translator Yunus--are all crammed into a mini-van barreling down the roads that lead to Rashahi, the zone that we will be visiting. Traffic here is an eclectic mix of motorcycles, bicycle rickshaws, cars, trucks hauling absurdly large loads and comically unstable buses all chaotically weaving and swerving, honking and narrowly avoiding catastrophe.  After 6 hours of bouncing along these roads we are happy, if not relieved, to have arrived at the Branch that will be our home for the next 10 days.  It is a two-story building--the first occupied by Grameen--with two small rooms for guests.  In order to understand where branches fit into the Grameen hierarchy, I need to take a moment to explain how the bank is organized.  For in truth, Grameen is nothing short of an organizational miracle.  In fact, I would go so far as to say that while Dr. Muhammad Yunus is praised for recognizing that the poor can be credit worthy, his real, lasting achievement is in the details of how he goes about delivering that credit to them in a cost-effective manner. philosophy, Business, environment, brown, micro credit, News 2010-02-08T14:26:52+00:00 http://www.andyposner.org/index.php/posner/blog_main_comments/a_story_on_super_bowl_sunday/ http://www.andyposner.org/index.php/posner/blog_main_comments/a_story_on_super_bowl_sunday/#When:17:26:38Z This morning I was thinking about the fact that throughout America people today are resting, attending church and making preparations for watching the Super Bowl, while at the same time in Haiti, in Iraq, in Myanmar, and in so many unknown villages, slums and cities around the world there are people deprived of food, justice and dignity.  And it occurred to me that the great responsibility of living in a free society is to strike a balance between fully enjoying that freedom--and the comfort and security it affords--without turning a blind eye to the lack of freedom elsewhere.  How do we confront the horrors of Haiti without reducing our own hearts to rubble? Yet if we can look at these things with clarity and not turn away, then we can find sustainable, practical solutions.  Yes, that is our task.  What follows is the story of how I came to that realization. philosophy 2010-02-07T17:26:38+00:00 http://www.andyposner.org/index.php/posner/blog_main_comments/first_experiences_with_bangladesh_and_grameen/ http://www.andyposner.org/index.php/posner/blog_main_comments/first_experiences_with_bangladesh_and_grameen/#When:14:16:07Z This photo shows one of the Grameen center meetings First Impressions of Bangladesh and Grameen Bank When Jill and I landed in Dhaka on Sunday the city was shrouded in an intense fog that, we later learned, is quite common this time of year.  The scene when we walked outside the airport was pretty much what one would expect of a third world capital city: people everywhere; rickshaws competing for space with taxis and buses and all manner of other vehicles, human, animal and fossil-fuel powered; bustling markets; polluted air, etc. We were taken to the Grand Prince Hotel and then immediately met up with our interpreter, Matin, who accompanied us to Grameen Bank’s head office.  Our first adventure took place when Muhaimeen hailed a bicycle rickshaw that, in just three chaotic minutes, brought us to the office.  Amazingly, Grameen, a Bank that exists for and is owned by the poor, has a 21 story head office, one of the tallest buildings in the area.  One can’t help but feel that Grameen is a kind of conglomerate for good: leveraging all the ingenuity, efficiency, scale and power of corporations while being driven entirely by the motive to eradicate the world of poverty, of pollution, of injustice.  The numbers are staggering: Grameen has 8 million borrowers, 97% of whom are women and all of whom are poor.  They have 20,000 employees, a staggeringly high repayment rate, 4 million bank accounts for non Grameen borrowers (all borrowers must open an account so that they can deposit their required weekly savings there), and have turned a profit all but three years of operation.  Lastly, they are 95% owned by the borrowers themselves--each borrower gets a share in the company--and 5% owned by the Bangladesh government.  In short, Grameen’s Nobel Peace Prize was well deserved. philosophy, Business, environment, brown, micro credit 2010-01-08T14:16:07+00:00 http://www.andyposner.org/index.php/posner/blog_main_comments/first_blog_post_from_bangladesh_actually_from_the_bahrain_airport/ http://www.andyposner.org/index.php/posner/blog_main_comments/first_blog_post_from_bangladesh_actually_from_the_bahrain_airport/#When:14:09:07Z This photo is from our first flight from Boston to London on 1-01-10 Jill and I are currently in the airport in Bahrain waiting for the third, and final, leg of our 28 hour trip to Dhaka, Bangladesh.  We left Boston on the first of January at 7:20 PM and arrived in London at 6:50 AM on the second.  As you can see from the photo above, we really lucked out in terms of our seating on the first flight: we got the seats that are usually reserved for flight attendants when they take naps on long flight; as a result, we had seats that could recline all the way down (even though we were in coach) and we had as much leg room as we could possibly want!  The flight went smoothly and, as I have been reading The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich--an absolutely fascinating history of Hitler’s Germany--the time passed rather quickly.  Our second flight took us from London to Bahrain, where we are currently in the midst of a seven hour layover before one final flight to Dhaka. Business, environment, brown, micro credit, News 2010-01-03T14:09:07+00:00 http://www.andyposner.org/index.php/posner/blog_main_comments/reducing_the_high_cost_of_being_poor/ http://www.andyposner.org/index.php/posner/blog_main_comments/reducing_the_high_cost_of_being_poor/#When:17:11:28Z I originally wrote this article for The Capital Good Fund’s blog Here’s a simple dilemma that plagues many American families: how does someone that lives from paycheck to paycheck and is without a credit score—and therefore without a credit card—afford to cover unexpected expenses between paychecks, such as fixing a flat tire, a doctor’s visit, or even regular expenses such as groceries and phone bills?  For higher-income families, this simply is not a problem.  For one thing, consider how often you use a credit card to make purchases; doing so enables you to delay paying for the item until you have received your paycheck and can afford it.  And of course, being higher-income by definition means that one can most likely already afford most expenses that occur between paychecks.  But in the case of lower and moderate-income families, a lack of access to credit combined with a lack of savings forces them to so-called payday lenders to make ends meet during the week. brown, micro credit 2009-08-15T17:11:28+00:00 http://www.andyposner.org/index.php/posner/blog_main_comments/green_microfinance_advancing_social_equality_and_environmental_sustainabili/ http://www.andyposner.org/index.php/posner/blog_main_comments/green_microfinance_advancing_social_equality_and_environmental_sustainabili/#When:14:15:24Z Click here to download a PDF of my complete thesis. Questions and comments are much appreciated! My masters thesis in Environmental Studies at Brown University looks at how microfinance--the provision of small loans and other financial services to people not considered credit worthy by traditional financial institutions--can be used to advance environmental sustainability as well as social equality and empowerment in the United States.  The thesis starts out by explaining the philosophical approach that I applied to problem, namely, that to create a green economy in the US we need to ensure that all segments of society are engaged on environmental issues through entrepreneurship, jobs, investment opportunities and a sense that environmental problems are relevant to people’s lives.  The rest of the thesis explores how microfinance can accomplish those goals through 1) supporting ‘green collar entrepreneurs’--low and moderate-income individuals who want to start or expand green micro and small businesses, 2) by providing environmental education to all borrowers so that they are empowered to become civic leaders advocating for policy changes, organizing community events, and starting businesses that improve environmental quality, and 3) by providing loans for residential energy-efficiency and renewable energy upgrades to homeowners that wouldn’t ordinarily be able to partake in these types of programs due to problems with credit history or other barriers. A key component of my thesis was working to develop an organization, The Capital Good Fund, that can implement these aforementioned ideas.  In particular, we are working to develop “green credit builder loans,” which are loans of $100-$300 that finance the installation and purchase of low-flow showerheads, energy-efficient light bulbs and programmable thermostats.  The borrower receives education on how to use the product and realize additional savings; she also sees reduced energy bills AND she gets to build her credit history as well.  In addition, we are working to develop a larger loan product ($3,000-$10,000) that will cover 100% of the up-front cost of doing residential energy-efficiency projects.  What’s unique about the loan is that it is structured such that the payments are equal to or less than the savings, meaning that at a minimum the loan is revenue neutral to the borrower.  Lastly, we are working with our business borrowers to green their businesses and we are developing an environmental literacy curriculum that can be taught to our borrowers.  environment, featured, brown, micro credit, Thesis 2009-05-06T14:15:24+00:00 http://www.andyposner.org/index.php/posner/blog_main_comments/the_commencement_speech_that_never_was/ http://www.andyposner.org/index.php/posner/blog_main_comments/the_commencement_speech_that_never_was/#When:12:42:31Z Several weeks ago I was nominated--and then auditioned--to speak at the commencement ceremony for graduating graduate students from Brown.  Though I was not selected to be the speaker (I have some conspiracy theories on that front, I assure you!) I would like to share the text of the speech that I wrote, because I believe it captures the essence of how I feel about leaving the confines of the university and entering the ‘real world.’ New Opportunities in A Global Century of Innovation At first glance it would seem that now is an inopportune time to leave the grounds of the university and venture out into the world.  After all, between rising unemployment, a financial system in disarray, and a whole host of other local, regional and global problems ranging from urban blight to climate change, it would seem that the prospects for putting our newly minted skills to work as teachers, researchers, entrepreneurs and employees of firms large and small are, to put it bluntly, dim.  Yet we are also entering a world rife with unprecedented opportunities for those willing and able to take advantage of them.  An explosion of innovation in information technology has made it easier for more people to collaborate to tackle poverty, to create new products and services, and to share thoughts, ideas and experiences.  The cost of renewable energy is falling.  Social entrepreneurs are creating self-sufficient businesses that solve social and environmental problems.  The list is seemingly endless, and I believe that regardless of our particular field of study, as graduates of one of the finest universities in the nation, we are in a unique position to seek out these opportunities and apply our intellectual and financial capital toward them. philosophy, brown, News 2009-04-30T12:42:31+00:00 http://www.andyposner.org/index.php/posner/blog_main_comments/hearing_dr_muhammad_yunus_speak_in_queens_new_york/ http://www.andyposner.org/index.php/posner/blog_main_comments/hearing_dr_muhammad_yunus_speak_in_queens_new_york/#When:11:19:06Z This unfortunately grainy photo was taken while Dr. Yunus spoke about microfinance on Saturday, April 18, 2009 Ever since I read about Muhammad Yunus and the Grameen Bank in 2007 I have been absolutely enthralled with the concept of empowering people to help themselves through access affordable, small loans.  After all, my masters thesis deals with green microfinance, and during my time at Brown I have co-founded The Capital Good Fund, a non-profit microfinance institution.  So when I heard that Dr. Yunus would be speaking at St. John’s University in Queens, New York, I knew that I could not pass up the opportunity to go. I went with two other Capital Good Fund staff members, Nabeel and Faiz.  We met at 8:30 in the morning at Kennedy Plaza in downtown Providence, Rhode Island, and caught a bus to New York City. From there, we took the subway and a bus to get to St. John’s.  Outside of their basketball stadium, a market had been set up where Grameen America’s borrowers were selling their wares--food, purses, jewelry, etc.  Grameen America was founded in 2008 by Muhammad Yunus, and is being run by senior executives of Grameen Bank.  In their first year of operation, they made 650 loans totalling $1.5 million dollars, with a repayment rate of over 99%. brown, micro credit 2009-04-20T11:19:06+00:00 http://www.andyposner.org/index.php/posner/blog_main_comments/social_business_and_the_genius_of_muhammad_yunus/ http://www.andyposner.org/index.php/posner/blog_main_comments/social_business_and_the_genius_of_muhammad_yunus/#When:11:53:54Z I am currently reading a book by Dr. Muhammad Yunus titled Creating a World Without Poverty: Social Business and the Future of Capitalism, and I am left mesmerized both by the brilliance of Dr. Yunus himself and the beauty of the idea which he proposes in his book--the idea of social businesses.  Let me start by providing a summary of what Yunus means by a social business. He defines it as an enterprise that has investors who recoup their initial investment but who do not receive dividends or profit from their investment.  Thus instead of making their investment based on the company that is most likely to offer them the highest, most secure return, they choose based on the company that offers the greatest social or environmental benefits.  Social businesses exist for the sole purpose of addressing social and environmental problems, but they are not charities.  Instead, they must achieve self-sufficiency by selling low-cost products and services, or through a myriad of other methods that enable the organizations to pay back the investor’s initial investment, to achieve financial sustainability and to achieve the mission of the organization.  In essence, then, what Yunus is proposing is a blending of for-profit and non-profit models, but in a way that I have not seen in the past.  He suggests that social businesses will compete with traditional profit maximizing businesses (PMBs) on quality, price, availability, etc.  He goes on to propose new innovations such as a stock market for social businesses where the company’s stock price reflects its ability to achieve social good, rather than it’s ability to make profit at any cost. Perhaps if this idea were to come from anyone but a Nobel Peace prize winner and the founder of the Grameen Bank and the Grameen family of companies in Bangladesh--one of the most remarkable group of organizations ever established--it would be seen as naive.  But to illustrate the power of the idea, Yunus starts his book by describing how he convinced the CEO of Dannone Group, one of the largest companies in the world, to launch a social business in Bangladesh that would focus on providing low-cost, healthful food products the poor, rural Bangladeshis.  Within a year of proposing the idea, Grameen Dannone, as the new company was called, had completed an environmentally friendly yogurt factory, and were selling their nutritious yogurt through Grameen borrowers.  Dannone fronted half the start-up costs and, aside from getting back its initial investment, will make no money on the deal.  All profits earned by the company will be reinvested in the company to lower prices or to expand into new markets. Business, environment, brown, micro credit 2009-04-02T11:53:54+00:00 http://www.andyposner.org/index.php/posner/blog_main_comments/microfinance_microfinance_and_more_microfinance/ http://www.andyposner.org/index.php/posner/blog_main_comments/microfinance_microfinance_and_more_microfinance/#When:23:44:51Z Microfinance has completely invaded my life of late.  My thesis, titled ‘Green Microfinance: A Blueprint for Advancing Environmental Sustainability and Social Equality in the United States,’ is about 80% complete, and obviously deals with the various ways in which microfinance can be used for advancing environmental aims.  In addition, the non-profit that I co-founded, The Capital Good Fund, is in the middle of a pilot phase, and I have been very busy speaking to and meeting with applicants.  Lastly, I have been working with my business partner, Mike, and the company we founded, The Capital Good Group, Inc. so launch an innovative financing mechanism that covers 100% of the up-front cost of doing residential energy-saving upgrades and is, in effect, a microfinance program as well.  I haven’t written here in a while, and I want to provide some updates on these projects, as they are all intimately related despite the fact that one is a masters thesis, the other is a non-profit, and the last is a for-profit. The Capital Good Fund We have made a lot of exciting progress recently.  First, we just launched our new web site, www.capitalgoodfund.org.  On the site, you can learn more about microfinance, see our community partners, check out the latest updates on our program, make a tax-deductible donation, download a loan application or find out how else to get involved with us.  We are really excited to have the site up, and we have already received inquiries from potential borrowers through the site! Business, environment, brown, micro credit, Thesis 2009-03-25T23:44:51+00:00