Invest

Small Change, Big Change

What do you do with your spare change?

Did you know that the average American home has about $100 in spare change lying around? If you are like most people, your nickels and quarters and dimes usually collect dust in a jar or pot and often go unnoticed.

A $100 loan is often all it takes for a poor person to work her way out of poverty. Small change can drive BIG change.

Invest your small change to make a BIG change today!

You can make a big change in the lives of the working poor around the world by investing in microfinance. Your investment enables institutions around the world to provide loans to the working poor. The more you invest, the more funds are available to lend to more poor people.

You could also win an artisan piggy bank!

How It Works

Start investing today. There are only 2,000 unique piggy banks to win! If you and the friends you refer together make $500 or more in investments you can win a beautiful artisan piggy bank.

Look for Calvert Foundation offerings on MicroPlace, including options such as:

Domestic microfinance (such as ACCION USA and ACCION Texas)
Microfinance in Africa (such as Kenya Women Finance Trust and PRIDE-Tanzania)
Microfinance organizations focusing on women (such as Adhikar in India and Bereke in Kazakhstan)
And dozens more options!

Learn more at: www.microplace.com/smallchangebigchange.

Who does microfinance help?

Microfinance provides financial services to the world's working poor, primarily in developing countries, but also here in the U.S. This practice extends small loans (often less than $200) to hard working people too poor to qualify for traditional bank loans or other forms of credit. In contrast to charity, these loans enable the working poor to lift themselves out of poverty. Microfinance is nothing new for us, but partnering with MicroPlace builds on our history and track record of this kind of lending.

Microfinance helps families in developing countries who lack access to credit and live in poverty. Microfinance has been especially beneficial to women, empowering them to become successful in starting businesses, which in turn allows them to better support their families. Through investment in microfinance, Calvert Foundation has helped families around the world.

1. Spread the Word
Check out MicroPlace and use their "send an ecard" feature in the lower right-hand side of their homepage to invite five of your friends, family and co-workers to check out the new site.

2. Support Calvert Foundation
Through MicroPlace we are positioned to substantially increase Community Investment Note sales. However, for every dollar raised, we need core capital in order to make loans to our microfinance institution partners. Every $1 donated to us supports $20 of lending activity through MicroPlace – but also through investments made directly to us. A donation to our Giftshares program will bolster the core capital requirements needed to realize this opportunity.

Special Thanks

Calvert Foundation is grateful to the following organizations for their support in launching MicroPlace:

We are also working with subadvisors that helped us provide a more robust supply of investments to MicroPlace: MicroVest Capital Management, Triple Jump Fund Management, and Unitus, Inc.

Last, but not least, we are extremely thankful for ongoing pro bono legal support from the law firm of O’Melveny & Myers LLP, which provides us with invaluable legal guidance for our design and implementation of this initiative.