California-based USAID-Funded Microfinance NGO Plans for Financial Self-Sufficiency.

Autumn 1999, Michigan, USA

San Francisco-based Net Impact, originally Students for Responsible Business, is a non profit membership organization for business school students and professionals interested in using business skills in support of various social and environmental causes. It supports over 300 autonomous volunteer-run chapters and a membership base of over 100,000. Its programs and networking events are centred on topics such as: corporate social responsibility, social entrepreneurship, non-profit management, international development, and environmental sustainability.

After participating in the previous year’s conference at Yale University, and working within its Net Impact’s summer programming, Sabrina was invited to share her experiences and present the finding of her work with Katalysis Microfinance Partnership. The organization sought to anticipate expected declines in its traditional funding sources. It engaged Sabrina’s strategic and business planning, and research skills toward the inclusion of alternative revenue sources from its regular programming within its strategic and business panning. Sabrina shared these results, “The Evolution to Self-Sufficiency: Strategic Planning at a USAID funded Microfinance Organization,” with the Net Impact community at the Annual Conference, in 1999 held at the Michigan University Business School.