eBay founder donates $100m for microfinance lending fund
Howard Lake | 12 November 2005 | News
Pierre Omidyar, founder of eBay, and his wife Pamela are to donate $100 million to Tufts University in the USA to establish a new fund for microfinance lending initiatives.
Microfinance investment projects like the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh already serve 80 million people around the world, by giving them the comparatively small loans to help them set up their own business. The Omidyars however want their fund to have an even bigger impact on its own – reaching 500 million people in the developing world.
Omidyar is keen to demonstrate that his model can be self-sustaining and profitable, hence his partnership with the university rather than go it alone.
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The new fund will not invest directly in individuals, but in microfinance banks and other providers.
About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.