About Us
Despite the fact that microfinance is one of the most effective tools in alleviating poverty, many do not understand the real impact of the practice. Indeed, many who provide microloans do not know exactly how borrowers use the funds or how the funds will affect borrowers’ financial situations, believing that microfinance is the singular solution to poverty. Given this and the strain that the COVID-19 pandemic has placed on the global microfinance space, we believed that we could bring value in creating an organization whose primary purpose is communication between high school microfinance clubs is essential in ensuring that we maximize the impact of our resources.
A student-run initiative founded in March 2020, the National High School Microfinance Coalition is a network of high school students who are committed to alleviating global poverty through microfinance. Collaborating with leaders in the field, we analyze the impact of microfinance and how we can best use the practice to empower unbanked entrepreneurs around the globe. We discuss microfinance lending strategies and best practices, host virtual events, and connect high school microfinance clubs with mentors and leaders in the field.
Member Organizations.
Zawadi By Youth
Riverdale Country School
Bronx, New York
Founded in 2009, Zawadi By Youth is a student-run non-profit microfinance club at Riverdale Country School that strives to increase global financial inclusion. Our goal is to foster financial stability and literacy and community development by making microloans to primarily female entrepreneurs that lack access to traditional financial services. In pursuit of such objectives, we offer loans through a lending platform called Kiva. As of January 2020, we made over 1,100 loans to entrepreneurs in 45 countries with a repayment rate of 99.79 percent.
Kiva Club
John Burroughs School
St. Louis, Missouri
Student Ambassador: Lily Walther
The John Burroughs School Kiva Club’s mission is to enable Burroughs students to assist individuals around the world in growing small businesses by providing microloans. We focus on supporting women to build their independence. We raise money and then choose the entrepreneurs, businesses, and causes we want to support.
BTHS For Kiva
Brooklyn Technical High School
Brooklyn, New York
Student Ambassador: Simrun Kothari
BTHS For Kiva was founded by Simrun Kothari after her internship in Bangladesh at Grameen Bank, a Nobel Peace prize winning organization. She was inspired to inform others at her school and create meaningful change directly from Brooklyn, NY. The club aims to learn and explore the nuances surrounding microfinance as well as organize fundraisers to lend through Kiva. BTHS For Kiva has created a GoFundMe page as well as held a fundraiser at parent teacher conferences. They have raised a total of $780.
Lending to End All Poverty
Ransom Everglades School
Coconut Grove, Florida
Student Ambassador: Adam Chopp
Lending to End All Poverty (LEAP) was founded in 2007 as a collaborative effort to assist small businesses in countries around the world through microfinance. We aim to assist as many people as possible by administering loans through the platform Kiva.org. We have made 1,739 loans in 71 countries and are 7th on Kiva’s leaderboard for total amount lent by school teams.
Soles4Good provides used shoes to women in developing nations and helps them kickstart their own micro-businesses. They sell used shoes for a profit and are able to provide for their family and community. So far, we’ve collected and shipped 15K+ shoes to help kickstart 13 micro-businesses in El Salvador and Senegal. And we’re just getting started.
Economics & Fiscal Policy Club
Harvard-Westlake School
Los Angeles, California
Student Ambassador: Lucas Lee
The Economics Club intends to better the Harvard-Westlake community by serving as a way for students to explore the field of economics, providing a medium to adjudicate student-led trading competitions, and acting as a channel for communication with the parent body and other like-minded student organizations around the country. Our club acts as a platform through which students can further their knowledge about a field that they could potentially pursue. The club hosts weekly meetings at which they discuss various economics topics, organizes a stock market challenge, and produces a bi-monthly podcast.
Microfinance Club
Hinsdale Central High School
Hinsdale, Illinois
Student Ambassador: Yan Xiang Shao
The Hinsdale Central High School Microfinance Club is a student-run initiative with a mission is to alleviate global poverty through microloans. We donate to a plethora of individuals and causes around the world, such as small, female-run businesses. With our microloans, we hope to make a significant positive impact on the world.
Microfinance Club
Spence School
New York, New York
Student Ambassadors: Charlotte Myers and Olivia Waterman
The Spence School Microfinance Club aims to support small, women owned businesses through micro loans. The club supports businesses worldwide and aims to stimulate the economy surrounding each business. Our organization hopes to raise awareness of the benefits of Microfinance and reduce global poverty.
Lyons Township Microfinance
Lyons Township High School
La Grange, Illinois
Advisor: Matt Ranft
The mission of the Lyons Township High School microfinance club is to support struggling small businesses in our local community. During meetings, we brainstorm fundraising strategies and explore other cases of microfinance projects across the world. We examine how institutions have loaned out our funds and learn how they decide to whom they will lend our funds. Ultimately, we aim to spread awareness about microfinance in the Lyons Township community.
Microfinance Club
Loyola Academy
Wilmette, Illinois
Student Ambassador: Quinn Nimesheim
The Loyola Academy Microfinance Club strives to educate and inform students in the community about the sustainability of microfinance. As a club, we raise money through fundraisers and make loans through the Kiva lending platform.
State College Area High School Kiva Club
State College Area High School
State College, Pennsylvania
Advisor: Chris Felsmann
The State College Area High School and Park Forest Middle School Kiva Club loans because we want to make this world a better place where all people can live a happy and healthy life. As of June 2020 both the H.S. and M.S. Kiva Clubs have raised over $12,000 and made over 2,800 loans totaling nearly $85,000. Hundreds of students have participated in fundraising events and lending activities since the club’s inception in 2010. As the club continues to grow, it provides students with the opportunity to learn about, and acquire skills in, finance, marketing and promotion, global economics, and the social and political implications of poverty around the world.
Microfinance Club
The Collegiate School for Boys
New York, New York
Student Ambassadors: Ankit Raparthi and Lucas Wang
The Microfinance Club at Collegiate was founded in 2020 by juniors Ankit Raparthi and Lucas Wang. It is a student-run club with the goal of using microfinance to combat global poverty. We expect to lend money to various causes and hope we can make a difference in the lives of many people for many years to come!
Kiva Club
The Overlake School
Redmond, Washington
Student Ambassadors: Musab Chummun and Nathan Lacy
Mending Through Lending, founded over a decade ago, has been a steadfast force for change in the Overlake community. Tina Proctor, our faculty leader and High School history teacher, has strived to educate our members and leaders on poverty alleviation. The club has made over 1,000 loans to countries all around the world and hopes to sustain and uphold Kiva's mission for years to come. Beyond lending, students learn about poverty alleviation and aim to be conscious about the effects, large and small, of our loans.
Greenhill Microfinance Club
Greenhill School
Addison, Texas
Student Ambassadors: Arush Adabala
Green Farms Academy Microfinance Club
Greens Farm Academy
Westport, Connecticut
Student Ambassadors: Fiona Reynolds and Phoebe Nelson
Impact Microfinance Global
Miami, Florida
Student Ambassadors: Ellie Rosenwald
Hillsborough Business Club
Hillsborough, New Jersey
Student Ambassadors: Sid Parvatrao
The goal of the Greenhill Microfinance Club is to teach students about microfinance to provide them with the literacy necessary to be successful in their microfinance endeavors. The club focuses primarily on working with small business and minority entrepreneurs affected by COVID in North Texas and beyond.
The goal of the Greenhill Microfinance Club is to teach students about microfinance to provide them with the literacy necessary to be successful in their microfinance endeavors. The club focuses primarily on working with small business and minority entrepreneurs affected by COVID in North Texas and beyond.
Our mission at Impact Microfinance Global is to educate and empower high school students to use microfinance as a tool to combat poverty and promote economic development around the world. By creating a platform for communication and collaboration, we aim to maximize the impact of microfinance and ensure that high school students are equipped with the knowledge and resources necessary to make a meaningful difference in the lives of others. We believe that through our collective efforts, we can create a more equitable and just world for all.
The Hillsborough Business Club is a student-organized club at Hillsborough High School that provides its students the opportunity to immerse themselves in the world of business by allowing them to see how companies and businesses operate and react to adversity. In our bi-weekly meetings, students learn how different types of businesses operate, get the chance to run a business and deal with its implications, and participate in competitions that allow them to put their skills and experience up against others in the state and country. We look forward to integrating Microfinance into the club this year to give students a different perspective on business, one more community-minded, in order to help them utilize their skills to benefit smaller businesses.