Transforming a nonprofit into a for-profit company is a tricky and lengthy process that many organizations are willing to undertake.

• The majority of micro loans dispensed around the world come from for-profit microfinance institutions. However, it is rarely known that many of these organizations began as nonprofit NGO’s.
• Transforming a nonprofit into a for-profit organization is a long process and involves attracting investors, obtaining regulatory approval and getting a financial institution license.
• Many organizations struggle to achieve for-profit status while maintaining their social mission – it is difficult to keep the founder, investors and stakeholders equally satisfied.

Facts & Figures

• SKS Microfinance was funded by three rounds of venture capital and grew from nonprofit to have 4.7 billion borrowers in 2009.
• SKS just raised another $358 million in an IPO.

Best Quote

Grameen Bank reaches 7 million clients and that’s amazing. On the other hand, it took Professor Yunus [Grameen Bank's founder] 35 years to do that… Can you imagine how many generations it will take to reach 150 million poor households in India if we took that approach? We have to scale more rapidly, and only commercial capital will meet our huge funding requirements. – Vikram Akula, Founder, SKS.

Tags: Accion, for-profit, loan, microfinance, NGO, nonprofit, SKS Microfinance