ACCION International

Accion International is a global nonprofit organization that supports microfinance institutions in their work to provide financial services to low-income clients. Over more than 50 years, Accion has helped build 63 microfinance institutions in 32 countries on four continents. Accion also engages in impact investing initiatives to support start-ups that are working to create models for improving the efficiency, reach and scope of financial services for the poor. Today, Accion works with an active network of 29 microfinance institutions in 23 countries found in North America, Latin America, the Caribbean, Africa, and Asia. As of March, 2014 those institutions were collectively serving 4.96 million people with microloans and 3.64 million people with savings products.

Accion provides management services, technical assistance, governance, debt and equity investment, and training to microfinance institutions and microfinance support organizations. Accion promotes the commercial model of microfinance, in which microfinance institutions adhere to a double-bottom-line – achieving both social and financial goals.

Accion is headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts, and also has offices in Washington, D.C.; Bogota, Colombia; Accra, Ghana; Bangalore, India; and Beijing, China.

Accion was founded as a grassroots community development organization in 1961 by Joseph Blatchford. In the beginning, young, college-educated Americans volunteered in Venezuela, and then Brazil, on community-development projects. The objective was to enable people living in poverty to help themselves by organizing their own efforts and talents. Early projects included building schools, community centers, and roads.

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