Mercy Corps Northwest
Mercy Corps Northwest was one of five organizations selected to be part of the new Learning Group on Scale. The Learning Group will assist participating organizations in advancing their progress toward scale by learning from the experiences of current Scale Academy members, pursuing a customized agenda that addresses their specific issues and challenges, and participating in collective initiatives designed to advance the field's pursuit of scale.
The Learning Group first met in September 2009 and will continue through 2010.
Scale-up Strategy:
Mercy Corps Northwest is seeking to share and collaborate with peers to further expand their one-on-one technical assistance services and scalable on-line business development services to address unmet demand by low-income entrepreneurs in the greater Pacific Northwest region. Their strategy is to develop a demographically dispersed and functionally varied range of collaborative partners to share in lending and to maintain their relationships in their various communities, while leveraging regional assets and skills in lending. To add scale and quantified impact to economic development efforts for low-income communities regionally they have developed an on-line lending system and are building collaborations and training/certifications for partner business assistance providers. |
|
Background:
Mercy Corps Northwest works to assist motivated low-income individuals improve their lives through starting or expanding a small business. They provide funding, matched savings, and other services that help clients increase their economic self-sufficiency through self-employment.
Originally a program of Mercy Corps, the international relief and development organization, Mercy Corps Northwest is currently an independent 501(c)3 and became a Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) in 2002.
Core Microenterprise Services: |
- Asset Development Services, Individual Development Accounts
- Microenterprise loans ranging from $500 to $35,000. Small business loans up to $50,000
- Business Development Services and Training
Highlights: |
- Enlarged board expertise and geographical coverage through new board member selection.
- Developed a regional analysis of microenterprise service gaps for the Pacific Northwest that led to a strategic plan for scaling-up business development services, assets development services and lending.
- Added lending capacity in Seattle and Portland through new hires, partnerships and by opening a Seattle office in 2009.
|
Current Scale:
FY2007: 50 loans disbursed
FY2008: 76 loans disbursed
|
Scale Projections:
FY2009: 38 loans disbursed
FY2010: 249 loans disbursed |
Learning Questions:
How can we build a functioning collaborative (instead of competitive networks) with multiple partners with varying skills, cultures, and geography?
How can we accelerate client independence while capturing clients/customers through a network of collaborative partners?
