PLATINUM2024

Grameen America Inc

Jackson Heights, NY   |  www.grameenamerica.org

Mission

Founded by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus in 2008, Grameen America is a nonprofit microfinance organization that empowers women who live in poverty to create better lives for themselves and their families through entrepreneurship. We offer microloans, training, and support to transform communities and fight poverty in the United States.

Ruling year info

2008

CEO

Andrea Jung

Main address

82-11 37th Avenue, Suite 607

Jackson Heights, NY 11372 USA

Show more contact info

EIN

20-8497991

NTEE code info

Economic Development (S30)

Community, Neighborhood Development, Improvement (S20)

Financial Counseling, Money Management (P51)

IRS filing requirement

This organization is required to file an IRS Form 990 or 990-EZ.

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Communication

Programs and results

What we aim to solve

SOURCE: Self-reported by organization

Grameen America reaches populations traditionally excluded by other lenders due to lack of credit and financial history. Without access to capital it is nearly impossible for under-resourced women to launch a business to generate income and support economic mobility. Grameen America recognizes the creditworthiness of low-income women entrepreneurs, demonstrated by the program's high repayment rate of 99%.

Our programs

SOURCE: Self-reported by organization

What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?

Grameen America

Founded by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus in 2008, Grameen America is a nonprofit microfinance organization that empowers women who live in poverty to create better lives for themselves and their families through entrepreneurship. The fastest-growing nonprofit microfinance organization in the U.S., Grameen has assisted over 213,000 low-income minority women entrepreneurs, investing more than $4.7 billion in their small businesses.

Grameen America serves the most disadvantaged communities with the greatest barriers to economic independence and helps women entrepreneurs build their small businesses by closing the capital and capacity gaps that are extensive for this demographic. Through access to affordable microloans, wraparound services, and peer support, we help women in our program increase their business income to stabilize families, revitalize low-income communities and create multigenerational change.

Population(s) Served
People of African descent
Multiracial people
People of Latin American descent
Women
Economically disadvantaged people

Where we work

Our results

SOURCE: Self-reported by organization

How does this organization measure their results? It's a hard question but an important one.

Average change in income of clients served (in dollars)

This metric is no longer tracked.
Totals By Year
Population(s) Served

Multiracial people, People of Latin American descent, People of African descent, Women

Related Program

Grameen America

Type of Metric

Outcome - describing the effects on people or issues

Direction of Success

Increasing

Context Notes

Average annual business income boost.

Total dollar amount of loans issued

This metric is no longer tracked.
Totals By Year
Related Program

Grameen America

Type of Metric

Output - describing our activities and reach

Direction of Success

Increasing

Number of jobs created and maintained

This metric is no longer tracked.
Totals By Year
Related Program

Grameen America

Type of Metric

Output - describing our activities and reach

Direction of Success

Increasing

Context Notes

cumulative since 2008

Number of borrowers served through the nonprofit's programs

This metric is no longer tracked.
Totals By Year
Related Program

Grameen America

Type of Metric

Output - describing our activities and reach

Direction of Success

Increasing

Context Notes

cumulative since 2008.

Number of microloan borrowers

This metric is no longer tracked.
Totals By Year
Related Program

Grameen America

Type of Metric

Output - describing our activities and reach

Direction of Success

Increasing

Context Notes

cumulative since 2008.

Number of loans issued

This metric is no longer tracked.
Totals By Year
Related Program

Grameen America

Type of Metric

Outcome - describing the effects on people or issues

Direction of Success

Increasing

Context Notes

cumulative since 2008.

Total dollars loaned to businesses

This metric is no longer tracked.
Totals By Year
Related Program

Grameen America

Type of Metric

Output - describing our activities and reach

Direction of Success

Increasing

Context Notes

cumulative since 2008.

Our Sustainable Development Goals

SOURCE: Self-reported by organization

Learn more about Sustainable Development Goals.

Goals & Strategy

SOURCE: Self-reported by organization

Learn about the organization's key goals, strategies, capabilities, and progress.

Charting impact

Four powerful questions that require reflection about what really matters - results.

Grameen America will change the paradigm of addressing economic inequality. We will deepen our impact by moving women and their families beyond financial stability to advance true upward economic mobility while advocating for a more inclusive financial system. These investments in women entrepreneurs will have a lasting impact on personal financial wellbeing, and also generate wealth for their families, support job creation in their local communities, and drive economic growth.

Grameen America has provided $4 billion in affordable capital to more than 190,000 women entrepreneurs across 27 U.S. cities. Over the next decade, we aim to open two times the number of locations, reach four times the number of women entrepreneurs, and disburse ten times the amount of loan capital.

Using a data-driven approach to identify markets with the greatest need, Grameen America targets the most economically distressed communities to expand access to safe and affordable financial services and support.

Grameen America has a proven model to reach low-income women entrepreneurs in economically distressed communities at scale with access to capital, credit-establishment and asset-building services. Using our unique group lending model built on strong peer networks and trust, we do not require collateral or credit history. This allows us to deploy large amounts of capital to low-income communities with a repayment rate of 99%.

As of January 2024, Grameen America has provided $4 billion in affordable capital to more than 190,000 women entrepreneurs across 27 U.S. cities.

How we listen

SOURCE: Self-reported by organization

Seeking feedback from people served makes programs more responsive and effective. Here’s how this organization is listening.

done We shared information about our current feedback practices.

  • How is your organization using feedback from the people you serve?

    To identify and remedy poor client service experiences, To identify bright spots and enhance positive service experiences, To make fundamental changes to our programs and/or operations, To inform the development of new programs/projects, To identify where we are less inclusive or equitable across demographic groups, To strengthen relationships with the people we serve, To understand people's needs and how we can help them achieve their goals

  • Which of the following feedback practices does your organization routinely carry out?

    We collect feedback from the people we serve at least annually, We take steps to get feedback from marginalized or under-represented people, We aim to collect feedback from as many people we serve as possible, We take steps to ensure people feel comfortable being honest with us, We look for patterns in feedback based on demographics (e.g., race, age, gender, etc.), We look for patterns in feedback based on people’s interactions with us (e.g., site, frequency of service, etc.), We engage the people who provide feedback in looking for ways we can improve in response, We act on the feedback we receive, We tell the people who gave us feedback how we acted on their feedback, We ask the people who gave us feedback how well they think we responded

  • What challenges does the organization face when collecting feedback?

    It is difficult to find the ongoing funding to support feedback collection

Financials

Grameen America Inc
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Operations

The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.

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Connect with nonprofit leaders

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lock

Connect with nonprofit leaders

Subscribe

Build relationships with key people who manage and lead nonprofit organizations with GuideStar Pro. Try a low commitment monthly plan today.

  • Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
  • Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
  • Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations

Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights? Learn More about GuideStar Pro.

Grameen America Inc

Board of directors
as of 10/11/2024
SOURCE: Self-reported by organization
Board co-chair

Muhammad Yunus

Grameen Bank


Board co-chair

John Megrue

Bridgewater Associates

Vidar Jorgensen

Primacare, World Health Care Congress

Muhammad Yunus

Grameen America

Michael Granoff

Pomona Capital, L.P.

Mahmoud Mamdani

Morgan Stanley

Andrea Jung

Grameen America

Karen Pritzker

Seedlings Foundation

Bob Annibale

University of London, SOAS

Nandita Bakhshi

Bank of the West and BNP Paribas USA

Ben Farkas

Hellman and Friedman

Maria Alonso

U.S. Century Bank

Lori Dickerson Fouche

Kraft Heinz

Jennifer Jackson

Walmart

Tasmina Rahman

Grameen Trust

Adriana Torres

Oracle

Board leadership practices

SOURCE: Self-reported by organization

GuideStar worked with BoardSource, the national leader in nonprofit board leadership and governance, to create this section.

  • Board orientation and education
    Does the board conduct a formal orientation for new board members and require all board members to sign a written agreement regarding their roles, responsibilities, and expectations? Yes
  • CEO oversight
    Has the board conducted a formal, written assessment of the chief executive within the past year ? Yes
  • Ethics and transparency
    Have the board and senior staff reviewed the conflict-of-interest policy and completed and signed disclosure statements in the past year? Yes
  • Board composition
    Does the board ensure an inclusive board member recruitment process that results in diversity of thought and leadership? Yes
  • Board performance
    Has the board conducted a formal, written self-assessment of its performance within the past three years? Not applicable

Organizational demographics

SOURCE: Self-reported; last updated 7/6/2022
info Candid has made improvements to the race and ethnicity options.

Who works and leads organizations that serve our diverse communities? Candid partnered with CHANGE Philanthropy on this demographic section.

Leadership

The organization's leader identifies as:

Race & ethnicity
Asian/Asian American
Gender identity
Female, Not transgender
Sexual orientation
Heterosexual or Straight
Disability status
Person without a disability

Race & ethnicity

Gender identity

Transgender Identity

Sexual orientation

No data

Disability

No data

Equity strategies

Last updated: 07/06/2022

GuideStar partnered with Equity in the Center - an organization that works to shift mindsets, practices, and systems to increase racial equity - to create this section. Learn more

Data
  • We ask team members to identify racial disparities in their programs and / or portfolios.
  • We analyze disaggregated data and root causes of race disparities that impact the organization's programs, portfolios, and the populations served.
  • We disaggregate data to adjust programming goals to keep pace with changing needs of the communities we support.
Policies and processes
  • We have a promotion process that anticipates and mitigates implicit and explicit biases about people of color serving in leadership positions.
  • We seek individuals from various race backgrounds for board and executive director/CEO positions within our organization.
  • We help senior leadership understand how to be inclusive leaders with learning approaches that emphasize reflection, iteration, and adaptability.
  • We measure and then disaggregate job satisfaction and retention data by race, function, level, and/or team.
  • We engage everyone, from the board to staff levels of the organization, in race equity work and ensure that individuals understand their roles in creating culture such that one’s race identity has no influence on how they fare within the organization.