MicroCredit Enterprises was founded in 2005 to address a critical yet common challenge for implementing organizations:  obtaining portfolio financing to expand their programs and reach more clients.  MicroCredit Enterprises provides an innovative solution by “mobilizing private investment capital to finance micro-businesses of poor families throughout the developing world.”  Specifically, MicroCredit Enterprises invites Guarantors (accredited individuals, foundations, corporations, etc.) to “guarantee and collateralize a financial line of credit provided by a financial institution to MicroCredit Enterprises. MicroCredit Enterprises then borrows money from the Guarantor-collateralized lines of credit in order to make loans to microfinance institutions in other countries which, in turn, provide microcredit loans to poor entrepreneurs.” 

Freedom from Hunger has worked closely with MicroCredit Enterprises from its conceptual development in 2004 to formation of its Board of Directors in 2005 to its inaugural loan disbursements in 2006.  In fact, MicroCredit Enterprises’ Chief Executive Officer, Jonathan Lewis, was the founder and Managing Chair of Freedom from Hunger’s Ambassadors Council while Freedom from Hunger’s President, Dr. Christopher Dunford, serves on MicroCredit Enterprises’ Board of Directors.  In addition, two Freedom from Hunger partner-implementing organizations have been awarded loans from MicroCredit Enterprises:  CRECER in Bolivia and Fundación ESPOIR in Ecuador.  Other Freedom from Hunger partners plan to apply for loans in the near future.