Crowd Sourcing in Micro-Finance (Skills Based Volunteering)

Crowd Sourcing is the act of using the power of community or a group of people to accomplish a specific task. The group completes the task with complete disregard for any financial or monetary compensation.People usually provide their time, skills and services pro bono for that task. One great example of a crowd sourcing product is Wikipedia, whose content is totally volunteer driven. Its a complete online encyclopedia made by the "people" for the "people".

Crowd sourcing has been introduced in microfinance by Grameen Foundation as an effective tool to utilize skills of various professionals in completing important tasks. Grameen Foundation recently launched the "Bankers without Borders" initiative, a pilot volunteer program, which believes in strategic placement of volunteer skilled professionals in various domains to reduce costs and allow micro-finance institutions to operate more effectively in alleviating poverty. Instead of the traditional approach of supervising volunteers, these skilled professionals are allowed to act on their own as managers and use their skills in poverty alleviation.

"For projects that stretch over a longer time frame, Bankers Without Borders has volunteers contribute hours incrementally. Eight employees from MasterCard, for example, worked over a six-month period to create a market entry strategy to support the Grameen Foundation’s program expansion in Colombia."

"What is motivating so many professionals to do this voluntary work? The top three reasons cited by Bankers Without Borders registrants are a desire to help the poor, a strong belief in the work of the Grameen Foundation, and interest in microfinance."

One of the important factors in contributing to scaling up of this project was that volunteers often work remotely. Most of the volunteer hours registered were off the field. Due to the analytic nature of the tasks, most of the professionals can provide consulting work without being physically present on the field. "One remote project involved 10 finance professionals who created a country risk assessment framework for 30 developing countries on behalf of the Grameen Foundation."

Bankers without Borders intends to replicate this volunteer assistance model in other regions through a global network of in country organizations.Each organization will get seed capital and operational support to help them mobilize volunteers in donating their time as consultants for the micro-finance institutions and social enterprises in those regions.

Some of the questions that come to mind are

1. How can this model be standardized so that its effectively replicated in other regions?
2. What role can governments play in promoting and streamlining this model in their respective countries?
3. What is the required institutional restructuring for micro finance institutions and social enterprises in other regions to accommodate this model in their daily operations?

Links

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crowdsourcing
• http://www.grameenfoundation.org/sites/default/files/SSIR_Summer%202011_WhatWorks_Brozek.pdf
• Stanford Social Innovation Review

The Power of Yogurt

While focusing on venture development and growth, this week’s readings further explored the idea of providing social solutions for bottom of the pyramid markets without “going the nonprofit route.” In this post, I would like to highlight one such company that fits this model. Grameen-Danone Foods was launched in 2006 as a social business enterprise union of the international food giant Danon and the Bangladeshi non-profit Grameen, which is primarily known for its work in microfinance. Muhammad Yunus, the founder of Grameen, proposed a joint venture between Grameen and Danone with the objective of supplying nutritious food to poor Bangladeshi children. According to UNICEF’s 2008 State of the World’s Children report, 30% of all Bangladeshis and 56% of Bangladeshi children under the age of 5 suffer from moderate to severe malnutrition. To address this problem, Grameen Danone Foods Ltd. produces a yogurt called “shakti doi” (power yogurt), which is made from pure full cream milk that contains protein, vitamins, iron, calcium, zinc, and other micronutrients. This yogurt is primarily intended for children, but it can be eaten by adults as well. One of the most exciting aspects of this yogurt is its affordability. The price of each 80 gram cup of yogurt is 5 taka or 5 cents. Factories have been set up to produce this “power yogurt” all over Bangladesh, employing large numbers of people, and plans to expand this model to other countries are in the works. The Grameen-Danone Foods model is currently a “no loss, no dividend” one, and the company is confident that investment will remain strong. Because the product is suitable in much of South Asia and the model itself can be adapted all around the world, shareholders continue to invest although they are not currently being paid dividends. The framework for strategic innovation at the base of the pyramid, as discussed in the MIT Sloan Management Review article, stresses affordability, acceptability, availability, and awareness. I believe that Grameen-Danone’s success stems from its business strategy that focuses on these very areas. “Yogurt” for thought: Will paying shareholders dividends change the culture of the organization? If so, in what ways?