Scale Academy for Microenterprise Development
Funded by the Citi and the Charles Stewart Mott Foundations and operated in collaboration with the Association for Enterprise Opportunity (AEO).
Round Two of the Academy: As the Scale Academy moves into its fifth year, FIELD and its partner, the Association for Enterprise Opportunity, have selected a new round of grantees. As in the first round, grantees were selected based on their past accomplishments in and future commitment to achieving organizational growth and impact. Read more about the new second round grantees.
About the Project
The Scale Academy for Microenterprise Development provides grant funding, peer learning events, and technical assistance to a set of high-performing microenterprise organizations that have demonstrated a commitment to scaling-up operations to serve more clients.
With the challenge of achieving greater scale a long-standing issue in the U.S. microenterprise field, the Scale Academy is viewed as a way to focus resources on a set of microenterprise organizations that are poised to scale up and, with this injection of support, produce an immediate return in terms of increased numbers of clients served.
The Academy was launched in May 2007 with the selection of the first round of seven grantees. In the four years between 2007 and 2011, these grantees received annual grants between $25,000 and $60,000 to fund activities supporting their scale-up strategies, and participated in a number of peer-learning activities aimed at enhancing their work and documenting their experiences so that they could be shared broadly with the microenterprise industry. Over the first three years of participation, Academy grantees collectively achieved 54 percent growth in the number of clients served and 26 percent growth in the number of loans made. In addition, the members can boast a number of other significant accomplishments, including:
- Two Academy members were selected as the first two U.S. microlending organizations to participate in Kiva, the peer-to-peer lending site.
- One Academy member created, and now several are partnering to organize a major new microfinance conference, Microfinance USA (which originated as Microfinance California in 2009).
- Several Scale Academy members are among the leaders in the industry in creating “green” loan products aimed at supporting small business investments in energy-efficiency, as well as the development of “green” products and businesses.
- One Scale Academy member is also a national leader in developing the “Regional Flavor” concept that weaves together food entrepreneurs with artisans and tourism-related business entrepreneurs to develop an economy based on creative industries, product innovation and a sense of place.
- One Scale Academy member was selected to partner with Citi/Banamex USA to pilot a secured card product designed to help low-income individuals to build credit. That organization has now been asked to serve as the central processor for other nonprofit organizations that will also be piloting the card.
- One Scale Academy member was awarded $3 million from JP Morgan Chase as part of that institution’s $25 million investment in small business lending.
In 2010, FIELD expanded the Scale Academy to include five “learning group” members who engage with the grantees in peer learning activities and are participating in a learning process targeted to their scale-up strategies.
Sharing Lessons with the Field
FIELD has produced three major publications, offered a number of well-received Webinars, and presented at numerous industry conferences and events, with the goal of sharing the lessons from the Academy. These include:
Innovating to Scale (2011) Summarizes 18 strategies used by Academy members to reach more clients. Describes innovations in core processes, products and services, partnerships and other practices.
Dollars for Dreams: Scaling Microlending in the United States (2010) Documents a series of lessons gleaned from the efforts of Scale Academy members to scale their microlending activity. Topics include market research and marketing, products and pricing, and underwriting and capitalization.
Focused on Growth: Scaling Business Development Services in the United States (2010). Explores experiences and lessons from six Academy members around their efforts to increase capacity for and growth of their business development services.
Forging Ahead: Early Lessons (2009) Details the strategies used by grantees and the lessons they learned regarding the key organizational capacities required to support greater scale.
Presentations: FIELD has also presented on the lessons from our Scale Academy at various conferences. Download copies of the following presentations:
Lessons from the Scale Academy, Virginia Microenterprise Network, September 30, 2010
Round One Grantees
Learn more about the scale strategies and accomplishments of the first set of Scale Academy grantees:
ACCION USA • Boston, MA
ACCION New Mexico • Albuquerque, NM
ACEnet (Appalachian Center for Economic Networks) • Athens, OH
Justine Petersen Housing and Reinvestment Corporation • St. Louis, MO
Opportunity Fund • San Jose, Calif. (formerly known as Lenders for Community Development)
Mountain BizWorks • Asheville, NC
WESST Corp • Albuquerque, NM
The Scale Academy Learning Group (Round One)
To learn more about the Scale Academy Learning Group members:
ACCION Chicago • Chicago, IL
Access to Capital for Entrepreneurs • Cleveland, GA (formerly Appalachian Community Enterprises)
Mercy Corps Northwest • Portland, OR
Mercy Corps/MicroMentor • San Francisco, CA
Renaissance Entrepreneurship Center • San Francisco, CA
Round Two Grantees
To learn more about the second round Scale Academy grantees visit:
ACCION Chicago • Chicago, IL
Four Bands Community Fund • Eagle Butte, SD
The Intersect Fund • New Brunswick, NJ
Mercy Corps Northwest • Portland, OR
MicroMentor • Portland, OR
