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EcoLogic Finance Awarded $465,000 By Skoll Foundation
EcoLogic Finance Awarded $465,000 By Skoll Foundation
Published 03-17-05
Submitted by EcoLogic Finance
Based in Cambridge, MA, EcoLogic Finance's mission is to provide affordable financial services to small- and medium-sized businesses operating in environmentally sensitive areas of the developing world, whose activities foster environmental conservation and grassroots economic development. The Skoll funding, which covers a three-year period, will help EcoLogic Finance continue building on the success of its loan program in rural Latin America, while launching a new financial management training program for its clients and expanding its work into Africa.
"We're honored and excited to be part of the Skoll Foundation's innovative portfolio of organizations," said EcoLogic Finance President William F. Foote. "The peasant farmers, women, and indigenous people we lend to play a critical role as stewards of the land. With this substantial support from the Skoll Foundation, EcoLogic Finance will be able to expand its reach, helping many more small, local entrepreneurs make a decent living while protecting the environment."
EcoLogic Finance is one of 13 organizations receiving $7.3 million from the Skoll Foundation through an open competitive process that identifies social entrepreneurs who have piloted innovative programs and are ready to take the next steps toward systemic social change. The awards will be presented on March 31 at the second annual Skoll World Forum on Social Entrepreneurship at Oxford University in England, where some of the world's leading practitioners and thought leaders in social entrepreneurship will convene to set the future agenda for visionaries who want to transform society.
The Skoll Foundation's mission is to advance systemic change benefiting communities around the world by investing in, connecting and celebrating social entrepreneurs, who are individuals dedicated to creating new solutions that result in lasting improvements to complex social problems.
"We have cast our net far and wide to find the world's best social entrepreneurs," said Sally Osberg, President and CEO of the Skoll Foundation. "EcoLogic Finance is tackling a complex social problem in order to promote healthy, sustainable communities."
For more information about the winners of the Skoll awards, visit http://www.skollfoundation.org/grantees/index.asp.
About EcoLogic Finance
Since launching operations in 1999, EcoLogic Finance has raised nearly $9.0 million in low-interest loan capital from 55 private investors. With these borrowed funds, the fund has made 123 loans with a gross value of over $18 million to rural producer organizations located in ten countries in Latin America and three countries in East Africa. All told, EcoLogic credit has benefited low-income communities in threatened habitats of Mexico (coffee, fisheries, eco-tourism), Guatemala (coffee, spices), Belize (eco-tourism), Nicaragua (coffee), Costa Rica (coffee, cocoa), Honduras (coffee), Ecuador (cocoa, eco-tourism), Peru (coffee, cocoa), Bolivia (coffee), Brazil (acaà fruit), Rwanda (coffee), Kenya (coffee) and Uganda (coffee). Based largely in indigenous communities that lack equitable access to capital, social services, and external markets, our borrowers have repaid 68 loans totaling over $9 million, and EcoLogic Finance has a 98% repayment rate. Other supporters of EcoLogic Finance include: The Citigroup Foundation, The David and Lucile Packard Foundation, The Flora Family Foundation, Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, JP Morgan Chase Foundation, The Overbook Foundation, Spencer T. and Ann W. Olin Foundation, Starbucks Coffee Company, and the U.S. Agency for International Development.
About the Skoll Foundation
Headquartered in Palo Alto, Calif., the Skoll Foundation was created in 1999 by Jeff Skoll, the first employee and first president of eBay. Its mission is to advance systemic change in communities around the world by investing in, connecting and celebrating social entrepreneurs, who are individuals dedicated to pioneering new solutions that result in lasting improvements to complex social problems.
The Skoll Foundation invests in social entrepreneurs through three award programs. The foundation connects social entrepreneurs through its online community, Social Edge, at www.socialedge.org, and via the annual Skoll World Forum on Social Entrepreneurship at the Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship at Oxford University. It celebrates social entrepreneurs through projects such as a four-part public television documentary called "The New Heroes" that will be broadcast in 2005. For more information, visit www.skollfoundation.org.
