Microfinance Alliance

The Microfinance Alliance has a number of opportunities for students to get involved. Also, there are many other opportunities to get involved in microfinance and related activities both locally (including in the Twin Cities Metro Area and around the nation; click "local opportunities" above) and abroad (click "opportunities abroad" above). Microfinance Alliance board members highly recommend getting experience overseas to broaden your perspective and get a better understanding of how microfinance works on the ground.

Specific Opportunities with the Microfinance Alliance:

Planning Events

We’re looking for people to help organize, promote, and run events. This includes:

• Coming up with good event ideas.
• Coordinating food and beverage service.
• Reserving event space.
• Advertising events: creating and posting posters, staffing contact tables, writing e-mails, helping with follow-up.

Improving Partnerships

We're looking for people to assist us in developing partnerships with other organizations locally and internationally. This includes:

• Letting us know about organizations you are involved in that are in some way related to microfinance or development through enterprise.
• Connecting us to people passionate about microfinance around the Twin Cities area.
• Connecting us to people and resources within the University of Minnesota
• Participating in Strategic Planning sessions to help guide the priorities of the Microfinance Alliance.
• Researching future partnership opportunities.

Developing our Website

We're looking for people to make regular updates to our web design and content. This includes:

• Brainstorming future website functionality.
• Updating content through our website's easy-to-use interface.
• Browsing other similar or related websites to stay up-to-date on current website trends.

Marketing MA and Microfinance

We're looking for people to help spread the word about MA and microfinance in general! This includes:

• Creating awareness of the MA brand online, especially through Facebook and other social networking sites.
• Coming up with good ideas for MA products and services.
• Brainstorming other ways to create MA brand awareness.

Assisting with Administration

We're looking for people to help the MA with everything they have to keep track of! This includes:

• Organizing marketing and communication materials.
• Creating and maintaining communication lists and newsletters.
• Working with board members to set meeting times and agendas.
• Keeping track of the MA budget.

Writing Grants

We're looking for people with experience to write grants to help fund our programs and administration

• Research grant opportunities
• Develop common copy to be customized for each grant application
• Assemble materials and submit grant proposals

This section aims to provide access to opportunities in both the Minneapolis/ St. Paul area, as well as links to national opportunities.

Local Community Development Organizations

Many local community development organizations do microfinance and related work. They will mostly likely have volunteer positions only, but if you are very interested in the local aspect, contact us and we will do what we can to see what we can find for paid positions.

In Minneapolis/ St. Paul, these organizations are merged under one umbrella organization, Metropolitan Consortium of Community Developers (MCCD). See their Member Lenders under Small Business Loans for a list of other similar organizations. A very active Minneapolis organization is the Neighborhood Development Center (NDC).

Local Organizations with International Operations

Chingwell Mutombu lives in Minnesota, and she runs a microfinance organization in the Democratic Republic of Congo called First Step Initiative. At times she will have specific volunteer opportunities, as well as the ongoing opportunities available under Get Involved.

The American Refugee Committee serves refugee populations in many ways, including extending credit and other economic support. They are headquartered in Minneapolis, but work in several countries where refugee populations exist. They list opportunities under Employment, specifically Internships and Volunteering.

National Opportunities

The following microfinance organizations may have domestic internship or job opportunities:

Unitus (career page)

ACCION (Jobs & Volunteering)

This section of our website aims to be a repository for all ongoing student microfinance opportunities abroad. For your convenience, we have organized them by the length of time overseas:

• Exploratory Trips are short-term trips, usually between 3 days and 2 weeks.
• Summer Internship Opportunities are fantastic ways to gain experience in between academic years.
• Extended Opportunities require a greater commitment, usually more than 4 months.

If you know of an opportunity that is not listed here, please send us an email. Of course, there are many internships with NGOs that are unrelated or peripheral to microfinance, and we have not listed them here because there are way too many to keep track of.

If you are a student at the University of Minnesota, Helzi Noponen, a visiting professor, has extensive experience working with microfinance institutions in India and Latin America and has been a tremendous resource for connecting students to summer internship opportunities. By emailing us, we can connect you with her.

In addition to the opportunities listed below, the Microfinance Gateway maintains an ongoing list of volunteer and internship opportunities with microfinance institutions.

Exploratory Trips

A few microfinance institutions offer trips of between 3 days and 2 weeks to learn about their work overseas. Here are some examples:

Unitus

Unitus offers Microfinance Trips to visit Unitus’s partners and learn about microfinance firsthand.

HOPE International

HOPE International is a faith-based microfinance institution that periodically offers guided HOPE Trips of its partners in the Dominican epublic and the Ukraine.

Summer (1-4 month) Internship Opportunities

There are many opportunities to intern for microfinance institutions either here in the United States or abroad. If you are looking for opportunities within the United States, please click "local opportunities" above. Internships abroad are invaluable experiences that can open doors to future employment in the microfinance industry. Microfinance jobs are very competitive, so experience overseas is almost always a prerequisite to employment at the top institutions. There are a wide variety of internships available, for both undergraduate and graduate-level students:

Grameen Foundation

The Grameen Foundation supports its network of microfinance institutions abroad. It has many internships available, some of which are summer internships.

FINCA International

FINCA has a very competitive fellows program through which a trained team of student researchers measure FINCA programs' social impact using the FINCA Client Assessment Tool.

FINCA posts other open intern positions on its website.

MicroCapital

MicroCapital, a division of Prisma MicroFinance, accepts applications for internships on a rolling basis.

HOPE International - Grow Internship Program

HOPE International is a faith-based microfinance institution that offers unpaid internships overseas. These internships begin with training at HOPE's headquarters in Lancaster, PA. Internships are available for both undergraduate and graduate-level students.

ACCION International

ACCION has open internships posted on its website.

Idealist.org

For additional opportunities, check out idealist.org, which has open listings for microfinance and other related internships.

Extended (4 months-1 year) Opportunities

There are also many opportunities for extended experiences with microfinance institutions. Like the internships mentioned above, these are also very competitive.

Grameen Foundation

The Grameen Foundation supports its network of microfinance institutions abroad. It has many internships available, some of which are longer than 4 months.

Kiva

The Kiva Fellows Program offers individuals the opportunity to travel abroad and work directly with one of their partner Microfinance Institutions—witnessing first-hand the impact of microfinance. The length of these engagements varies.