ACCION

ACCION changes people’s lives by providing microfinance services, including ‘micro’ loans, savings and insurance for poor entrepreneurs at the bottom of the pyramid.  Over time, ACCION has helped build 62 microfinance institutions in 31 countries, working to “give people the tools they need to work their way out of poverty.”   In order to make sure that these hard-working poor people have access, we 1) help create sustainable ‘banks’ for the working poor; 2) work at the international level on policy and regulatory issues, to help implement and encourage financial systems that support microfinance, 3) pioneer new technologies, products and ways of doing banking to reach more poor microentrepreneurs, 4) share what we learn so other organizations that want to help the poor through loans and other financial products can benefit from our experience. In the last ten years, we’ve served almost 9 million people with 36.1 million microloans, totaling $31.8 billion lent.

ACCION Statistics

• Year Founded: 1961
• Executive Director: Michael Schlein, President & CEO
• Annual Budget: 2009 $32.7MM (Admin: 26%, Program: 74%)
• Scope of work: International