FINCA International
Recognized as a top International Microfinance nonprofit in the following years:
17
8
Headquarters Location: Washington, DC
Founded: 1984
Mission: The mission of FINCA International is to provide financial services to the world's lowest-income entrepreneurs so they can create jobs, build assets and improve their standard of living
This organization has offices located worldwide. As the majority of our users are based in the U.S., the donation link is connected to the U.S. office.
Rupert Scofield.
Rupert Scofield, FINCA International President and Chief Executive Officer, is an agricultural economist with 40 years of experience in the developing countries of Africa, Latin America, Eurasia and the Greater Middle East. He also serves as President and CEO of FINCA Microfinance Holdings, LLC, a first-of-its-kind, socially-responsible investment partnership for microfinance, formulated to strike the right balance between attracting capital… See full bio.
Story:
Charles Rony Alphonse, pictured with his son, has been a FINCA Haiti client since 2009 and lives in Hinche, a small rural town in the east part of the country. Prior to working with FINCA, Charles split his time between his business and farming to generate enough income to support his eight kids. After receiving an individual loan from FINCA, Charles was able to devote all of his time to his business selling auto parts, and the loan permitted him to buy better parts from nearby Dominican Republic. Finally, Charles relocated his store to a prime spot and, most importantly, was able to paint his name on the storefront, a source of immense pride.
Expert Reviews of FINCA International
Evidence of Impact Summary:
FINCA serves often under-served populations including the very poor, those in rural areas, and women. FINCA provides other supportive services in addition to their credit programs. They are also known in the sector to have high performance rates on many microfinance industry measurements.See expert comments.
Organization Strengths Summary:
One expert pointed out that FINCA has a staying power, which can be very important in the sector. The organization also demonstrates commitment to its mission by being willing to reach out to clients in very remote areas despite the added costs. FINCA has a strong presence in terms of industry leadership and in terms of their affiliate locations in many countries. These help in driving performance and also in sharing lessons from various regions.See expert comments.
Areas for Improvement Summary:
FINCA may want to be mindful of finances in the future. One expert points out that high operating costs have the potential to interfere with their work in the future. One possible solution for that may be to take the advice of another expert, who suggests that the organization improve on their ability to raise funds from the private sector.See expert comments.
Expert Comments: Evidence of Impact
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Diverse Services |
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N
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They do a good deal of outreach to the poor. They also have many rural and woman clients. They provide services in addition to credit. | ||
High Performance Rates |
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F
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They have a strong reputation in the industry of high performance in all the metrics, such as portfolio at-risk (PAR) measurements, interest charged, repayment rates, etc. | ||
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FINCA's past influence was enormous, especially through the dissemination of the village banking model by FINCA's co-founder John Hatch in the late 1980s and early 1990s. | ||
Expert Comments: Organization Strengths
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Mission-Driven |
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N
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The organization has strong leadership and a committed management team. They also have a willingness to sacrifice profits to reach very rural and remote clients. | ||
Longevity |
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F
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They have longevity and staying power. | ||
Powerful Presence |
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O
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Some of their strengths include their simple methodology, leadership in micro-insurance, and the fact that some FINCA affiliates at the national level are very strong performers. Another organizational strength is their presence in several regions, which allows them to exchange experiences and lends to the regions learning from each other. | ||
Expert Comments: Areas for Improvement
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Improve Finances |
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N
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High operating costs could hinder their future operations. | ||
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They could become stronger at raising funds from the private sector. | ||
Examine Organizational Strategy |
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FINCA is more inward focused than other microfinance support organizations. Actually, FINCA is more organically engaged with its affiliates, which are true subsidiaries of FINCA International. This is because they aspire to be a sort of international bank for the poor. However, their affiliates have not provided influential, guiding examples for the global industry, and FINCA has not projected a distinctive voice or point of view. | ||
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O
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FINCA has been operating for 30 years. They have received tens of millions of dollars in donor funding. After all this time and after using all these resources, they still have only a few hundred thousand "clients", if that. FINCA would benefit enormously from an objective look at what they have set out to achieve, what they have actually managed, the rents in the fabric and, if they exist, ways in which to reform their efforts to create genuine change. | ||
Keep Client Needs First |
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N
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They have a well-known brand, but unacceptably high effective interest rates, which can have a negative impact on beneficiaries on the long run. | ||
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They are a pioneer of village banking. However, the original concept of village banking as creating independently functioning savings groups has largely vanished, as they have become just another microfinance institutions seeking profit. | ||
Leadership
President and CEO
Rupert Scofield, FINCA International President and Chief Executive Officer, is an agricultural economist with 40 years of experience in the developing countries of Africa, Latin America, Eurasia and the Greater Middle East. He also serves as President and CEO of FINCA Microfinance Holdings, LLC, a first-of-its-kind, socially-responsible investment partnership for microfinance, formulated to strike the right balance between attracting capital needed for expansion and protecting the integrity of FINCA’s charitable mission.
Mr. Scofield co-founded FINCA in 1984 with John Hatch, and has served as its President and CEO since 1994. Under his leadership, FINCA has grown from 60,000 clients and a loan portfolio of $5 million to a true global presence serving more than 950,000 low-income women and men across five continents with a loan portfolio exceeding $500 million.
A practitioner at heart, he is actively involved in the management of FINCA’s operations, and is also a frequent keynote speaker. As the author of The Social Entrepreneur’s Handbook: How to Start, Build and Run a Business that Improves the World, Mr. Scofield seeks to inspire the next generation of microfinance leaders and social entrepreneurs.
Prior to FINCA, Mr. Scofield served as the CEO of Rural Development Services, a consulting firm, and country program director of the AFL-CIO’s Labor Program in El Salvador. He earned two Masters of Arts degrees in agricultural economics and public administration from the University of Wisconsin, as well as a Bachelor of Arts from Brown University, and served in the Peace Corps in Guatemala
