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How Rang De is using crowdsourcing to make micro loans cheaper

Anu Thomas

May 04, 2017 |

The Economic Times |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: India, Bengaluru, Karnataka

A husband and wife team in Bangalore (Bengaluru) have created a peer-to-peer, online micro-loan platform to help make poverty history by addressing credit needs of underserved communities. Lenders on the platform can choose the individuals and projects they loan to, and interest rates are kept low so as to be accessible for the recipients. The platform, Rang De, has seen great success and boasts a 93% repayment rate.

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You Can Invest Directly Into Building Bike Paths, Better Schools

Oscar Perry Abello

April 25, 2017 |

Next City |

Text |

Under 800 Words

Response Location: United States, San Francisco, California

The startup Neighborly is making municipal bonds feel relevant. Rather than investing in a “muni” bond indirectly through a retirement fund, individuals can now directly purchase these bonds and target the money to areas they feel passionate about, whether that is building bike lanes in Vermont or investing in schools in Massachusetts. Neighborly is building renewed interest in the municipal bond market while generating more funding for important infrastructure projects.

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In Myanmar's slums, women pool savings to get relief from crushing loans

Connor MacDonald

March 30, 2017 |

Citiscope |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: Myanmar, Yangon, Yangon Region

Years of misrule and a subsequent dearth of hard currency, along with crippling bank-fostered debt cycles and exorbitant home mortgage interest rates, have created immense suffering for Myanmar's poor. But with the guidance of a local NGO, Women for the World, a pilot project helped women in some of Yangon's poorest neighborhoods capitalize on their cultural "head-of-household" status. It helped them form and manage community savings cooperatives, secure land, build homes, buy food, and even generate profit through loans to families' business enterprises.

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How to Keep Businesses (and Small Towns) Alive When Owners Retire

Kaela Bamberger

March 29, 2017 |

Yes! Magazine |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Concordia, Kansas

RedTire, short for Redefine Your Retirement, is helping small businesses stay afloat by facilitating transitions in business ownership and acting as a non-profit business broker. The service helps rural communities thrive since small businesses are essential to the vitality of small towns. In its five year history, RedTire has brokered sales that collectively total over $22 million.

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Help Is on the Way for Low-Income Co-op Buildings in NYC

Oscar Perry Abello

March 01, 2017 |

Next City |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, New York, New York

Habitat for Humanity, best known for its work building houses, is now working to become a Community Development Financial Institution in New York. The city has a history of buildings owned as cooperatives. However, a specific type of municipal debt negatively impacts many of these buildings. Habitat for Humanity’s New York chapter is working to provide loans to help cooperative owners pay off this debt. It will help individuals, while also marking a turning point in what the large nonprofit provides as a service.

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Can the Graduation Approach Help to End Extreme Poverty?

Tony Sheldon

February 07, 2017 |

Yale Insights |

Multi-Media |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: Bangladesh, Dhaka

BRAC, the largest NGO in the world and one of the leaders in microfinance as an approach to combating poverty, discovered that despite its successes, microcredit did not always reach what are called the Ultra-Poor in effective, sustainable ways. So they formed partnerships and launched a new, comprehensive initiative that involves consumption support, technical and financial literacy training, and asset management to create a pathway to prosperity called the "graduation approach."

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This Small Town Refused to Settle for Wal-Mart When Its Last Local Grocery Store Closed

Melissa Hellmann

January 02, 2017 |

Yes! Magazine |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Iola, Kansas

The small town of Iola, KS, and Allen County's GROW Council offer a case study of how local communities across this prairie state have worked to solve the absence of grocery stores in many rural areas. Through local resourcefulness and organizing efforts; knowledge and financial support from the state government; and partnership with Kansas State University's Rural Grocery Initiative, towns have succeeded in bringing grocery stores, from locally-owned coops to school-based distribution hubs, back to their Main Streets.

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'Bribing' Mums To Feed Their Kids

Emma Wilson Sahar Zand

December 18, 2016 |

BBC |

Radio |

Over 15 Minutes

Response Location: Peru, Tarma, Junín

One in three children in Peru are stunted by a lack of nutritious foods in their diet. In 2005, the government gave cash hand-outs to poor mothers, but only on the condition that they had regular health check-ups and their children went to school. By 2014 the number of children growing up too small had halved.

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Santa Fe couple helps Homewise create solar power loan fund

Bruce Krasnow

November 21, 2016 |

The Santa Fe New Mexican |

Text |

Under 800 Words

Response Location: United States, Santa Fe, New Mexico

For low- and moderate-income families in Santa Fe, home solar-voltaic systems can be an attractive but hard-to-finance idea. A local couple is partnering with Homewise to offer loans to homeowners interested in installing these systems. So far, Ann Alexander and Richard Khanlian’s $500,000 pledge has helped 19 homeowners get solar energy projects off the ground.

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How Raton got its groove back

Staci Matlock

November 15, 2016 |

Small Towns Big Change |

Text |

Over 3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Raton, New Mexico

By investing public money, developing a branch of a local community college, and encouraging locals to invest in their own hometown, the small city of Raton, New Mexico has begun to turn their economic hardships around. City officials have looked beyond cyclical extraction businesses like coal mining in order to think about long-term financial success for their community members.

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