STRATEGIC ALLIANCES
Omidyar® Network
Omidyar® Network is a philanthropic investment firm established by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar and his wife Pam. In 2005, Omidyar Network illustrated their commitment to Unitus by providing $2.7 million to support the Unitus Acceleration Model. In 2008, Omidyar Network furthered its support with another investment of $9 million.
Omidyar® Network enabled Unitus to expand operations and hire key staff members at its Seattle, Washington, and Bangalore, India, offices. Since the time of Omidyar® Network’s initial support, Unitus has helped bring microfinance services to an additional 6 million of the world’s poor and hired 36 professionals in Unitus’s Bangalore and Seattle offices.
Today, Omidyar® Network and Unitus continue to work together to explore ways to expand the reach of life-changing microfinance services and drive innovation in and across the industry. In 2009, Omidyar’s support is instrumental in bringing the Unitus Acceleration Model to East Africa.
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
In 2006, The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation chose Unitus to lead a practice group to identify hurdles to efficiency in the microfinance industry, and research ways to overcome those hurdles.
To implement this ground-breaking work, Unitus, with funding from The Gates Foundation, has hired a team of analysts to find ways of improving operational and financial efficiency among microfinance institutions (MFIs) in India, Latin America, and around the world. The Unitus Efficiency Team is working to identify and/or develop efficiency-enhancing measures such as reducing operating costs associated with MFIs, increasing employee productivity, and creating systems to optimize treasury management, which will further lower both the cost of capital for MFIs and interest rates for micro-entrepreneurs.
The results of this research will be shared across the industry to help MFIs operate more effectively and provide lower-cost services to their clients.
Whole Planet Foundation
In October 2008, Unitus and Whole Planet Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Whole Foods Market, joined forces to dramatically accelerate the growth of microfinance in the coffee-growing regions of Kenya. Unitus will leverage the Foundation’s support to assist Jamii Bora Trust, one of Kenya’s fastest-growing microfinance institutions (MFIs) and a Unitus partner since 2003, to expand its operations into the rural coffee-growing regions of Central Province and Eastern Province, Kenya. Noted for its uniquely creative approach to supporting Kenya’s urban poor, Jamii Bora will use the financial and technical support of Unitus and Whole Planet Foundation to expand its client outreach, introduce new technologies to enhance efficiency and reach rural clients, and develop new products to meet key customer needs.
Whole Planet Foundation's mission is to create economic partnerships with the poor in those developing-world communities that supply Whole Foods Market stores with product. The mission is achieved through innovative assistance for entrepreneurship, including direct microcredit loans and tangible support for other community partnership projects.
Dining for WomenDining for Women is a national non-profit giving circle dedicated to empowering women and girls living in extreme poverty. In 2010 Dining for Women is supporting Unitus’s work with partner Samhita Microfinance.
