Working Capital for Community Needs, Inc.
Programs and results
What we aim to solve
Our programs
What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?
The Capital for Communities Fund
The Capital Communities Fund operates by channeling funds from socially responsible investors (you) to Latin American non-governmental organizations (partner agencies) that specialize in providing credit and access to international markets to marginalized sectors. These are self-sustaining, nonprofit and for profit microfinance institutions and cooperatives with years of experience lending to and working with the poor in Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Peru.
Loans to farmers, cooperatives and small businesses benefit whole communities as funds circulate at the local level. A farmer, cooperative or small business that receives a loan buys goods and services and employs other people, furthering the community benefits of the loan. Thus even a small investment can have a tremendous impact. Your loan can generate employment and allow Latin Americans to feed their families and contribute to their communities.
Where we work
Awards
Top Rated 2015
Great Non-Profits
Affiliations & memberships
Community Shares 2016
External reviews

Photos
Videos
Our results
How does this organization measure their results? It's a hard question but an important one.
Number of dollars of private sector investments in agriculture attributable to the organization's efforts
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Related Program
The Capital for Communities Fund
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
This is the fair trade and organic agriculture portion of our portfolio, representing pre-harvest financing to smallholder farmers and their cooperative organizations.
Number of loans issued
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Related Program
The Capital for Communities Fund
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
More capital is needed to continue making more loans. We have maximized our cash available to deploy loans.
Total dollar amount of loans issued
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Related Program
The Capital for Communities Fund
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
The utilization rate of funds peaked in 2014, when we had excess cash available. Loans disbursed dropped off since then because we are not receiving enough donor or investor capital to meet demand.
Dollar amount of total loans written off
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Related Program
The Capital for Communities Fund
Type of Metric
Input - describing resources we use
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
In the 25 year history of our Capital for Communities Fund we have only written off $300,000. We prefer to work over the long term with the partner borrower to help them repay.
Number of borrowers served through the nonprofit's programs
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Related Program
The Capital for Communities Fund
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
In 2015, we implemented a new concentration policy to limit our exposure per partner from 20% of their assets to 7.5%. This dramatically drove down our portion of microborrowers served 2014 to 2016.
Goals & Strategy
Learn about the organization's key goals, strategies, capabilities, and progress.
Charting impact
Four powerful questions that require reflection about what really matters - results.
What is the organization aiming to accomplish?
Our mission is to create opportunities for access to microfinance, services and markets to improve the lives and communities of the working poor in Latin America. Our change theory is that by connecting community actors that finance, serve, train/educate, employ or do business with working poor persons and communities in Latin America, we improve the working poor family's income, welfare, and women's empowerment which leads to better lives and communities for the working poor. Our goal is to increase the number of working poor beneficiaries our organization serves through its financing to 38,750 people a year by 2017, a 25% increase over 2013 figures.
What are the organization's key strategies for making this happen?
Our strategies include a combination of organizational reinvestment and offering more choice on how to get involved to our current and future donors, investors, and advocates. This includes:
1. Updating our understanding of the working poor person's needs and context of poverty in Latin America and learning how to empower working poor persons and families to move out of poverty and stay out of poverty --build in more resiliency to their lives to weather economic shocks and be less vulnerable to their daily risks of falling back into poverty. This strategy includes updating our mapping of where poverty is concentrated in each country where we work, or in countries where we should be. It also includes examining the factors keeping people in poverty and pro-actively addressing them. Targeting low-income women and rural-based beneficiaries remains a priority, due to their continued prevalent poverty rates in the region.
2. Expanding investor/donor choice and outreach into more communities, including opening up choices for which pro-poor offering from WCCN best suits the individual investor/donor's values. It also means finding new partners operating in the same or new under-served poor communities in the region. This also includes making ourselves known to impact investors by attending select conferences and events to better connect with people interested in our work. It also likely includes expanding into at least one new country and new market sectors to reach more poor persons and communities.
3. Bolstering staff and organizational capacity for managing more working partnerships with investable organizations and supporters in the US by investing a portion of WCCN equity and generated surpluses from the WCCN C4C Programs I (Access to Finance & Markets) & II (Access to Housing & Equipment) back into the C4C III/ Access to Incubation & Innovation offering in line with our WCCN Mission focus and non-profit tradition.
What are the organization's capabilities for doing this?
WCCN currently has a base of supporters across the US, including donors, investors, and advocates or some combination of all three. WCCN staff and board have expertise in law, financial analysis, accounting, impact measurement, impact investing, lending, nonprofit management, fundraising, marketing, and information technology. In addition, our staff has traveled extensively to the Latin American region and in some cases are from that region, thus bringing perspectives about what will work and what our partners need. Much of that expertise has gone into the creation of WCCN's strategic plan, which provides social impact and financial targets with which to judge our progress. WCCN's board meets monthly to review progress towards its financial and impact goals. In addition, we have been doing this work for more than 30 years in the region.
What have they accomplished so far and what's next?
In 2016, we served 21,996 microborrowers and farmers, 53% of whom were women and 64% of whom were from rural areas. Our average loan size to a microborrower was $1,234, 38% below the 2015 regional average of $2,000. Our total portfolio outstanding at 2016 year-end was $11.2 million and we have invested $116 million in Latin America cumulatively since 1991. Through our value chain partners, we financed 1.5 million pounds of coffee.
WCCN has historically not had the systems and capacity to properly report on the indicators of the success of part 2 of our change theory. Implementing the systems to easily and efficiently capture that data remains a key challenge for this year and beyond.
Financials
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Operations
The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.
Connect with nonprofit leaders
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- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
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Connect with nonprofit leaders
SubscribeBuild 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.
Working Capital for Community Needs, Inc.
Board of directorsas of 09/17/2019
Tom Schwei
DNASTAR
Sue Lloyd
Retired Nonprofit Accountant, Founder of WCCN
Tammy Koester Parks
SVA Plumb
John Schroder
Great Midwest Bank
Tom Schwei
DNASTAR, Inc.
Kate Toews
Small Business Owner
Eliza Waters
Family Business
Nicole Bice
Hovde Foundation
Bob Lamb
US Bank
Nicholas Vandervelde
1st National Bank
Laura Graham
Wisconsin Supreme Court
Layla Kaiksow
Bethlehem Children's Museum
An Nguyen
WWBIC
Board leadership practices
GuideStar worked with BoardSource, the national leader in nonprofit board leadership and governance, to create this section.
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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? Yes