Lenore C. Albom Microfinance Giving Program
Lenore C. Albom
The Lenore C. Albom Microfinance Giving Program is the legacy left to the FWA by Lenore Albom, a former FWA President and visionary who understood the power that microfinance has to transform women’s lives. The promise of microfinance is one of empowerment—empowering low-income women and men through access to credit to invest and grow their businesses, provide for their families, and support their communities.
To show its ongoing support for the crisis in Haiti, the FWA will once again direct the Lenore Albom Microfinance Giving Program to Fonkoze, the largest microfinance institution in Haiti. Fonkoze has over 45,000 borrowers and 200,000 savers across the country. The institution’s clients—low-income entrepreneurs and their families in Port-au-Prince and nationwide—were severely impacted by the earthquake that ravaged the country in January 2010.
We are urging FWA members and friends to help the FWA raise $10,000 in funds for Fonkoze.
A year after the earthquake, Haiti’s people continue to suffer and the country’s shattered infrastructure, both physical as well as financial, continues to be weak. Within this context, Fonkoze has showed remarkable resilience and speed in its own recovery.
Fonkoze has taken a proactive approach to helping its clients, both old and new, with access to resources they need to rebuild their lives and their country. Fonkoze disbursed cash grants which benefited 85,964 people, provided 10,869 loans to micro-businesses devastated by the earthquake, and remitted to Haitians over $95 million in transfers from abroad. All of these services were combined with education and ancillary services designed to help clients revive their businesses, rebuild their houses, and to access the money they need to invest in the future.
“Three of Fonkoze’s senior team attended WWB’s (Women’s World Banking) Advanced Leadership Program at Wharton. If these three women are any indication of the strength of management that Fonkoze has, then I believe the organization has a significant opportunity to achieve impact in the Haitian market. They have weathered the last year with incredible leadership strength, which is unusual in an industry that often struggles with leadership and management capacity, within and outside of crises.”
Elizabeth Lynch, Manager at Women’s World Banking (WWB) and co-chair of the FWA Microfinance Committee.
The 2010 Lenore C. Albom Microfinance Giving Program will help ensure that the institution can continue to serve the critical financial needs of low-income Haitians during this important period of rebuilding. The donation will be unrestricted so that it can be applied to any of Fonkoze’s most urgent infrastructure needs.
A total of $2,500 has already been contributed towards this year’s $10,000 goal. Please help us raise the remaining $7,500 by June 30th.
| Three ways to donate to the FWA’s Lenore C. Albom Microfinance Giving Program:Donate Online:Please click the following link to go to a secure donation form, http://pay2.fwa.org/displayemailforms.cfm?emailformnbr=115167.Donate by Check:
Please make checks payable to the “FWA of New York Educational Fund*” and note “FWA Lenore C. Albom Microfinance Fund” in the memo field. Mail checks to: FWA Educational Fund, Attn: Nancy Sellar, 215 Park Avenue South, Suite 1712, New York, NY 10003 Matching Gifts: Also, many companies match employee donations. Please check with your personnel department to see whether your firm has a corporate gift matching policy that will enable your gift to go further. *Contributions to the FWA of New York Educational Fund, a 501(c)(3) charitable organization, may be considered as a tax deductible donation. For more information about the FWA’s involvement in microfinance, please visit the FWA Microfinance Initiative page at: http://www.fwa.org/community/microfinance.htm. |
For questions about the program, please contact Nancy Sellar, Executive Director, at nsellar@fwa.org or (212) 533-2141 x303.
