NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Thursday, January 16, 2014

Calvert Foundation and MicroVest today announced a partnership to manage Calvert Foundation’s investments in the microfinance sector. The partnership builds on more than nine years of collaboration between the two organizations and leverages each group’s expertise to more efficiently invest in microfinance.

This partnership, effective as of January 1st, 2014, maintains Calvert Foundation’s commitment to the microfinance sector, reduces its operating expenses, and takes advantage of MicroVest’s capacity for effectively deploying capital to microfinance institutions around the world. MicroVest’s commitment to building financial markets is bolstered by Calvert Foundation’s retail investor marketing expertise.

“The MicroVest partnership enables us to create greater social impact by investing more efficiently in microfinance institutions creating positive change at the grassroots level,” said Calvert Foundation President and CEO Jennifer Pryce. “We have helped develop the impact investing industry over the past 18 years and will continue to do so through scalable, sustainable deployment partnerships with best in class organizations like MicroVest.”

“We are pleased that our ongoing relationship with Calvert Foundation will increase the amount of capital we can allocate to scalable, pro-poor financial institutions,” said Gil Crawford, MicroVest’s CEO. “We look forward to continuing to creatively develop our investment universe with quality institutions such as Calvert Foundation.”

The partnership will maintain Calvert Foundation’s diversified and high-impact microfinance investment experience for its investors. Two main aspects of the partnership are:

Servicing agreement for existing loans – Under the terms of the partnership, MicroVest will monitor and service Calvert Foundation’s existing microfinance loan portfolio.

Investments in MicroVest funds – As Calvert Foundation’s existing microfinance loans mature and repay, Calvert Foundation will typically redeploy the capital into MicroVest’s existing family of five funds.