Microfinance has been all the rage since Muhammad Yunus and the Grameen Bank won the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize. (you can hear a recent Press Club speech that Yunus gave at MPR.) The Pioneer Press profiled Twin Cities microfinancers on the front page of Sunday's business section. As the article describes, local microfinancing especially helps new immigrants who don't have established credit ratings start small businesses ("micro" being relative to the cost of doing business here - though the loans are typically less than $35,000, they certainly dwarf the $100 and smaller loans made in developing countries). The organizations that help finance new businesses here also have innovative financing that doesn't utilize interest, which some Muslims consider to be a violation of Islamic law. Read all about it here.

Free micro-loan forum at Minneapolis Central Library on January 3. http://www.friendsofmpl.org/Friends_programs2005.html#WPF

Whole Foods Market, in partnership with The Friends of the Minneapolis Public Library, is holding a public forum to discuss 2006 Nobel Prize Winner, Dr. Muhammad Yunus's work with the Whole Planet Foundation. Facilitated by Joy Peterson, internal programs coordinator for the Whole Planet Foundation, the forum also will address the concept of micro-loans and their ability to pull families out of poverty, as well as local participation via upcoming in-store fundraisers. Listen as she accounts stories of those influenced by the Whole Planet Foundation and find out which countries the Foundation, currently operating in Guatemala and Costa Rica, will expand to next.

Posted by: Heather Ilse on December 27, 2006 12:49 PM