http://capitalgoodfund.org/index.php en nabeel@capitalgoodfund.org Copyright 2010 2010-02-24T22:51:07+00:00 http://capitalgoodfund.org/index.php/site/our_impact/ http://capitalgoodfund.org/index.php/site/our_impact/#When:21:51:07Z The Capital Good Fund’s breadth of loan and technical assistance programs meet the ever-chaning needs of low and moderate-income communities.  We are always looking to serve our target market better.  If you feel you have an idea that you would like us to implement, or would like to learn more about our work and those we serve, please feel free to contact us. 2009 Social Impact Report CGF is proud to release its first annual social impact report!  The report details some of the main demographics of clients that the Fund has served through small loans and technical assistance.  Be sure to check back for follow up posts that track the progress of clients and new ways CGF is impacting the communities it serves! The report can be found below.  Click here to view it in your browser. CGF Eval Report 2010-02-24T21:51:07+00:00 http://capitalgoodfund.org/index.php/site/visiting_a_village--part_1/ http://capitalgoodfund.org/index.php/site/visiting_a_village--part_1/#When:14:52:58Z Andy and Jill with a Grameen Bank Center Manager and Borrowers If you talk to anyone at Grameen Bank they will tell you that the real bank can only be found by going to the villages where Grameen operates.  Grameen, after all, means rural, and in fact by law Grameen can only operate its lending programs in the villages.  It is for this reason that on our third day in Bangladesh we—Jill, me, an Australian named Mark, our translator Matin and Mark’s translator Yunus—are all crammed into a mini-van barreling down the roads that lead to Rashahi, the zone that we will be visiting. Traffic here is an eclectic mix of motorcycles, bicycle rickshaws, cars, trucks hauling absurdly large loads and comically unstable buses all chaotically weaving and swerving, honking and narrowly avoiding catastrophe.  After 6 hours of bouncing along these roads we are happy, if not relieved, to have arrived at the Branch that will be our home for the next 10 days.  It is a two-story building—the first occupied by Grameen—with two small rooms for guests.  In order to understand where branches fit into the Grameen hierarchy, I need to take a moment to explain how the bank is organized.  For in truth, Grameen is nothing short of an organizational miracle.  In fact, I would go so far as to say that while Dr. Muhammad Yunus is praised for recognizing that the poor can be credit worthy, his real, lasting achievement is in the details of how he goes about delivering that credit to them in a cost-effective manner. The most fundamental unit of Grameen is the group.  Groups consist of at least 5 and up to 10 borrowers (97% of whom are women).  Groups come together to form a Center; the standard number is for there to be 60 borrowers in a Center consisting of 12 groups of 5.  In many ways the Center is the heart of Grameen; this is where the borrowers gather once a week to make payments on their loan, deposit their savings, make loan proposals and discuss various issues with fellow borrowers.  What’s more, the Center Meetings, which take place in Center Houses—made of bamboo and with tin roofs—also serve as “female empowerment zones.”  It’s hard to describe how interesting it is to see, in a male-dominated society such as is found Bangladesh, 60 women gathered together, in public.  It truly stands conventional notions of women staying out of public life on their head and, of the last 30 years, these centers have actual begun to change manner in which women are perceived and treated.  That’s so small accomplishment for an organization that “just gives out small loans.” The sign on top of the Branch where we stayed: the Grameen logo can be seen on the left The borrower-group-center structure of Grameen is what allows it to be profitable despite the extremely high transaction cost/low profit margin nature of microlending.  Consider this, for example: center managers (Grameen’s equivalent of a loan officer), each visit two centers per day, 5 days per week.  Given that centers typically have 60 borrowers, that means that one loan officer oversees 600 borrowers!  This is possible because so much of the customer service that is done by a paid employee in a Western bank is done by other borrowers in the Grameen model—underwriting, support, encouragement, recruitment, etc.  As a result, a Branch—which is the next level up in the hierarchy—can have up to 10 Center Managers, overseeing 6,000 borrowers.  Given that at any given time upwards of 90% of these borrowers have outstanding loans, and that the repayment rates are usually above 98%, it isn’t hard to understand how it is that Branches can be profitable. For example, the Branch we are visiting has 4,700 borrowers, of which 4,500 are active, a 100% repayment rate and is highly profitable. In the next post I’ll discuss how the Branch operates, conclude my explanation of the Garmeen organizational structure, and tell stories of some of the borrowers. Andy and Jill with a Grameen Bank Borrower 2010-02-08T14:52:58+00:00 http://capitalgoodfund.org/index.php/site/tuesday_january_5_2010_600_am/ http://capitalgoodfund.org/index.php/site/tuesday_january_5_2010_600_am/#When:03:07:29Z This photo shows one of the Grameen center meetings First Impressions of Bangladesh and Grameen Bank When Jill and I landed in Dhaka on Sunday the city was shrouded in an intense fog that, we later learned, is quite common this time of year.  The scene when we walked outside the airport was pretty much what one would expect of a third world capital city: people everywhere; rickshaws competing for space with taxis and buses and all manner of other vehicles, human, animal and fossil-fuel powered; bustling markets; polluted air, etc. We were taken to the Grand Prince Hotel and then immediately met up with our interpreter, Matin, who accompanied us to Grameen Bank’s head office.  Our first adventure took place when Muhaimeen hailed a bicycle rickshaw that, in just three chaotic minutes, brought us to the office.  Amazingly, Grameen, a Bank that exists for and is owned by the poor, has a 21 story head office, one of the tallest buildings in the area.  One can’t help but feel that Grameen is a kind of conglomerate for good: leveraging all the ingenuity, efficiency, scale and power of corporations while being driven entirely by the motive to eradicate the world of poverty, of pollution, of injustice.  The numbers are staggering: Grameen has 8 million borrowers, 97% of whom are women and all of whom are poor.  They have 20,000 employees, a staggeringly high repayment rate, 4 million bank accounts for non Grameen borrowers (all borrowers must open an account so that they can deposit their required weekly savings there), and have turned a profit all but three years of operation.  Lastly, they are 95% owned by the borrowers themselves—each borrower gets a share in the company—and 5% owned by the Bangladesh government.  In short, Grameen’s Nobel Peace Prize was well deserved. This photo depicts the issuing of a loan to a Grameen client Plans for the Coming Weeks On the 11th floor of the building we met with our coordinator from Grameen’s International Program: Harun.  Harun sat down with us to provide an overview of Grameen’s history, philosophy, methodology and products and services, as well as an explanation of how the Basic Training program works.  Like everything with Grameen, the Basic Training program is extremely well organization and thought out: yesterday we had an orientation visit to a village (Grameen means village in Bangla) and today we leave with our interpreter to spent 12 days at another village where we will be intensely trained in the Grameen approach.  After that we will come back to Dhaka to debrief with Harun, ask additional questions, etc., and finally we will spend the remaining week visiting some of Grameen’s ‘sister organizations:’ these are organizations, some for profit and some non profit, all designed to meet a need of the poor.  Examples include an eye care hospital, a telecom company (the largest in Bangladesh) and a renewable energy non profit.  Lastly, we will meet with some key Grameen people, including—hopefully—the Managing Director, Dr. Muhammad Yunus!  What follows are photos and thoughts from our first trip to the village. Jill and Andy in a mustard field Visiting a Village We visited a village that is about 2 hours from Dhaka and went to a Grameen Branch office.  There, we had tea and conversed with the Branch Manager as well as the Zonal Manager.  Then came the highlight of the trip: we got to attend a Center Meeting (more on this in coming posts, but basically to get a loan the women form a group, and then 6-8 groups form a Center) where borrowers make repayments and discuss various issues relative to their businesses, health, education, and so on.  The Center Meeting took place inside a non-descript building made of corrugated iron; inside, 60 sari-clad, shy-yet-smiling women sat waiting to make their loan repayments.  Harun introduced us to them and lead a kind of question and answer session.  Some of the women told us about what they do with the loans—many of them had been with Grameen for 15 years or more—the impact of the loans, and much more.  They were so excited to meet us; at the end of the meeting they practically begged us to see their homes! Sitting in that room, surrounded by women who were previously poor and subservient to men but who have moved out of poverty and are now full of confidence, I felt so much optimism about the future of the world.  Yes, there are staggering problems in the world, but the simple beauty of Grameen is that it empowers the people who are struggling to help themselves; they do not need to wait for government aid, or for a law to be pass, rather, they are able to take charge of their lives and their destinies.  They vast majority take full advantage. Grameen has expanded from offering micro business loans to also loans for education and the construction of homes.  It is simple amazing to hear how Grameen has literally changed the villages of Bangladesh over the last thirty years.  They like to say that they do not have 8 million individual borrowers but rather 8 million families that they engage with!  Think about that.  Grameen has managed to slowly begin to change the way in which women are treated and viewed in society (Bangladesh currently has a female prime minister).  Grameen has brought millions out of poverty, helped built hundreds of thousands of safe, sanitary homes and enabled tens of thousands of the children of Grameen borrowers to attend college and even earned advanced degrees. Over the next 12 days Jill and I are going to learn all the nuances of how Grameen works so that we can replicate this success in America.  For now, I am absolutely amazed by what I am seeing.  The people couldn’t be nicer and more hospital and Grameen couldn’t be more inspiring.  Stay tuned for more thoughts, photos, ideas and musings! Jill and Andy outside a borrower’s home 2010-01-05T03:07:29+00:00 http://capitalgoodfund.org/index.php/site/first_blog_post_from_bangladesh--actually_from_the_bahrain_airport/ http://capitalgoodfund.org/index.php/site/first_blog_post_from_bangladesh--actually_from_the_bahrain_airport/#When:17:43:27Z This photo is from our first flight from Boston to London on 1-01-10 Jill and I are currently in the airport in Bahrain waiting for the third, and final, leg of our 28 hour trip to Dhaka, Bangladesh.  We left Boston on the first of January at 7:20 PM and arrived in London at 6:50 AM on the second.  As you can see from the photo above, we really lucked out in terms of our seating on the first flight: we got the seats that are usually reserved for flight attendants when they take naps on long flight; as a result, we had seats that could recline all the way down (even though we were in coach) and we had as much leg room as we could possibly want!  The flight went smoothly and, as I have been reading The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich—an absolutely fascinating history of Hitler’s Germany—the time passed rather quickly.  Our second flight took us from London to Bahrain, where we are currently in the midst of a seven hour layover before one final flight to Dhaka. We couldn’t resist taking a photo of this display inside the airport terminal in Bahrain Both Jill and I are extremely excited to begin the training with Grameen Bank, though we are also somewhat tired from all the travel.  Personally, I can say that I consider Grameen to be one of the beacons of hope for creating a world in which poverty, as Muhammad Yunus likes to say, is “relegated to museums” and people around the world have the health, safety and economic opportunity they need to lead fulfilling lives. I am certain that over the next three weeks we will learn much, experience much and come up with many ideas that we can implement at Capital Good Fund.  We are inspired and honored to have this opportunity to learn from a Nobel Peace Prize winning organization, and we are confident that this experience will help us to make Capital Good Fund even more effective and innovative as we worked towards realizing our mission of creating poverty-free, inclusive green economy in the United States. Stay tuned for more blog posts!  We will be posting many photos and thoughts every chance we get, and feel free to leave comments, as well. After much searching, Jill and I found travel adaptors that allowed us to work on our computers 2010-01-02T17:43:27+00:00 http://capitalgoodfund.org/index.php/site/green_credit_builder_loan_program/ http://capitalgoodfund.org/index.php/site/green_credit_builder_loan_program/#When:20:43:22Z The Capital Good Fund is excited to announce that it has launched its DoubleGreen Credit Builder Loan program!  This innovative new loan covers the cost of purchasing and installing a programmable thermostats in households throughout Rhode Island.  These energy upgrades can save borrowers approximately $185 in annual energy bills.  Moreover, borrowers will be able to build their credit through demonstrated repayment of the loan.  Improved credit, in turn, will provide greater access to capital and other economic opportunities and lead to a more prosperous and inclusive economy for all.  Lastly, CGF is the first microlender in the country to launch a loan of this nature! Click here to apply for the loan! CGF spent the summer of 2009 researching how to best implement the loan program in the city of Providence and synthesized its findings to present to the Community Carbon Use Reduction at Brown (CCURB) program for further suppport.  You can click here to access the report in PDF Format. Below is a list of Frequently Asked Questions in English and Spanish and more specifics about the loan program.  For more information, please give us a call or send us an email at info@capitalgoodfund.org. CGF Credit Builder Loan Overview—English CGF Credit Builder Loan Spanish 2009-12-24T20:43:22+00:00 http://capitalgoodfund.org/index.php/site/photos_and_thoughts_from_our_first_business_training_workshop/ http://capitalgoodfund.org/index.php/site/photos_and_thoughts_from_our_first_business_training_workshop/#When:15:42:30Z Participants in the workshop pose with their graduation certificates! Our innovative 5-part business training workshop—which teaches business basics such as profit and loss, budgeting and marketing—recently came to a close with a final class focusing on how to go green, both at home and through entrepreneurship.  15 Providence residents attended the course, 9 of whom attended all 5 classes and received certificates.  We are thrilled with the results of the class.  Students learned the essential skills needed for business, but were also taught basic financial literacy, including how to create a personal budget, understanding credit and how to calculate and compare interest rates.  In addition, wherever possible the students learned how going green presents opportunities for saving and making money at home and in their businesses.  Surveys conducted at the end of the course confirmed what we anecdotally knew: that it was a success! For example, 100% of the students would recommend the course to a friend, 87.5% would pay $50 or more for the course and 87.% would be interested in taking an advanced business course offered by us. Read on to learn about our plans moving forward. Starting in February, this course will become the level one, or introductory, business training course that we offer.  The level two, or advanced course, will be a slightly modified version of the course that the Intersect Fund—a highly-successful student driven MFI based in New Brunswick, New Jersey—has developed and used to train over 70 people so far.  The course consists of 8 classes, 3 hours each, and is designed for people that are ready to start a business or are already in business.  In contrast, our business basics course is designed for people that are interested in learning more about business and financial literacy so that they can get a feel for whether or not starting a business is right for them.  By the end of the advanced course students will have an SBA-approved business plan and a thorough understand of everything they’ll need to know to launch and grow a successful business. In addition, they will have the requisite tools for making their businesses environmental friendly and for taking advantage of opportunities presented by the move toward green products and services. We believe that offering microloans, together with two levels of business workshops, will ensure that we can serve our clients needs in a variety of ways.  What’s more, because we will start charging for the courses, they will serve as a source of earned income for our organization, reducing our dependence on grants and making it easier for us to serve more people more effectively.  Below are more photos from our first workshop. Andy Posner posing with graduate Marlon Cifuentes Andy Posner posing with graduate Oscar Vargas 2009-12-09T15:42:30+00:00 http://capitalgoodfund.org/index.php/site/the_swearing_in_of_eva_our_first_citizenship_borrower/ http://capitalgoodfund.org/index.php/site/the_swearing_in_of_eva_our_first_citizenship_borrower/#When:16:46:51Z Authored by Andy Posner, CGF’s Co-Founder and Director Andy Posner poses with Eva after the ceremony On Thursday, September 17 Eva, our first citizenship borrower, officially became a United States citizen during a moving swearing in ceremony at the International Institute of Rhode Island (IIRI).  CGF’s loan of $875 covered Eva’s cost of applying for citizenship, as well as what the IIRI charges for legal representation and citizenship classes throughout the process. This special day—which was special for Eva, CGF and the 24 other immigrants who finally became naturalized citizens—was made even more special by the fact that it was also citizen and constitution day, a fact whose significance was not lost on the speakers and members of the audience.  After taking an oath of allegiance to the United States, the new citizens received certificates and celebrated their new status! Read on for more photos from and thoughts about the event. Thoughts and Photos From the Ceremony As director of CGF, I spend a lot of time working on things that can sometimes feel disconnected from what the work is really about: making loans to amazing people like Eva so that they can start or expand businesses, become United States citizens or build their credit and reduce their energy bills.  Since we made the loan to Eva back in March (she was our very first borrower) CGF has grown and evolved, but what has remained constant is our commitment to making affordable financial services available to the communities of Providence.  So it was with great joy that I traveled to the ceremony and watched 25 eager, hopeful and delighted individuals from all walks of life raise their right hands to take the oath of allegiance and become citizens. It is nice to remember that with all the problems and challenges that America faces—two wars, an economic and health care crisis, to name a few—the idealism and optimism that first inspired the constitution still manages to permeate the hearts of those seeking a better life in this country. It was beautiful and inspiring to see with what glee these new citizens leafed through their brand new copy of the U.S. constitution that was issued to them by a government and people who, though they sometimes fall short of the ideals expressed therein, retain in their hearts the spirit of democracy and are able, in moments such as these, to call upon it and remind us of what is great about America.  All the feelings inspired in me by the simple yet quietly elegant ceremony reminded me that CGF would be meaningless were it not for the brave, bold and entrepreneurial individuals that approach us with dreams and hopes; all we do is finance those dreams!  I have no doubt that as a citizen, Eva will be an informed and engaged voter, and she will continue to be a leader in her community.  CGF’s second citizenship borrower recently passed his exam, and we are equally excited about attending his swearing in ceremony, as well as the ceremonies of countless others whose citizenship will be financed by CGF and achieved thanks to perseverance and a tenacious desire for a better future. 2009-09-19T16:46:51+00:00 http://capitalgoodfund.org/index.php/site/capital_good_funds_mission_a_perfect_match_for_the_city_of_providence/ http://capitalgoodfund.org/index.php/site/capital_good_funds_mission_a_perfect_match_for_the_city_of_providence/#When:04:19:27Z David Cicilline, Mayor of Providence, recently wrote, in the on-line magazine Social Enterprise, that the city is fast becoming a ‘hot bed for young social entrepreneurs’ and that social enterprise is a ‘key ingredient to our future success’, highlighting the Capital Good Fund as an example of this burgeoning sector. Mayor Cicilline points out that his administration will be ‘paying particular attention to the need of social enterprises and how municipal government can play a role in helping them achieve their goals.’ Nurturing social enterprise, small businesses, and non-profits is a critical component to the city’s economic future, an idea captured by its recent rebranding as the The Creative Capital. The Mayor couldn’t be more right. Now is the opportunity, what with the economic downturn and rising unemployment, to capitalize on the immense creativity, resourcefulness, and industriousness of local residents, as well as the young student entrepreneurs coming out of the city’s many outstanding universities.  Many Providence residents find themselves unemployed and are driven to create their own small business – be it a cleaning business, a restaurant, etc. – to support themselves and their families.  Others are taking the opportunity to enroll in job training programs, such as green job training programs, to start a new career and improve their marketability to prospective employers.  Some graduates of these job training programs may seek to start their own business. It is these people who will require the same level of support from and access to city government resources as the young entrepreneurs coming from Brown, RISD, Providence College, etc. Access to capital for small business and entrepreneurs is, of course, another issue. CGF serves as a resource for capital for local entrepreneurs and small businesses that have difficultly accessing capital through traditional channels. But CGF not only provides capital, it also provides technical assistance to borrowers: CGF provides financial literacy and business training to its borrowers, with a particular attention to environmentally sustainable business practices.  This approach ensures the success of small business and entrepreneurial borrowers, while ensuring environmental sustainability, which the city has indicated is a major component of its future, as evidenced by the recently published sustainability plan, Green Print.  In short, CGF’s mission to create an inclusive, green economy dovetails perfectly with the environmental and economic agenda laid out by Mayor Cicilline and the city of Providence.  2009-09-06T04:19:27+00:00 http://capitalgoodfund.org/index.php/site/microfinance_through_the_eyes_of_an_intern_or_what_i_learned_at_cgf_this_su/ http://capitalgoodfund.org/index.php/site/microfinance_through_the_eyes_of_an_intern_or_what_i_learned_at_cgf_this_su/#When:01:49:53Z Authored by Julie Siwicki For one: credit reports are complicated. As a summer intern, one of my first tasks involved finding resources about building credit. CGF staff planned to study them, internalize them, and then begin providing credit counseling to our borrowers.  With the help of an asset-building organization in St. Louis, MO, Justine Petersen, LLC, CGF received several trainings in reading credit reports. We learned a lot – like how long it takes for a bad line of credit to fall off your score, and why starting a new line can be better than paying off old debt. I was baffled by the amount of information each sample report contained. The trainings made me feel much more confident about my personal finances, and I realized that Providence’s low-income residents stand to benefit from them markedly more than I did. #2: Providence is full of forward-thinking individuals who want to educate themselves and improve their quality of life. I attended our inaugural borrower meeting and regular focus groups, thrilled to engage face-to-face with CGF’s raison d’être. When asked what auxiliary services they’d like to see from us (aside from the loans themselves), borrowers prioritized education about America’s credit system. Understandably so! Their stories convinced me that CGF is reaching the right people, and successfully meeting their needs. Finally: Microfinance is effective. Credit is a requirement for financial success in the US – not only for big businesses making big investments and middle-class homeowners, but for start-up entrepreneurs and families living from paycheck to paycheck. Yet I’ve found that commercial banks often deny the tool of credit to low-income community members who need small loans. Bankers are unimpressed by the sum of interest repayments that would come in, or worried about the risk of default posed by lower-income borrowers.  Stronger credit reports are a guaranteed way to improve their chances of getting a loan, but very few people understand the value of a good credit score or how they could improve theirs (see lesson #1 above!). In Providence, CGF has stepped in to assure this community that they are credit-worthy. As a result of its services, one borrower, Nina, has created a profitable daycare center while another, Eva, has been able to become a U.S. citizen.  This summer, CGF has impressed me with the active steps it takes to educate its constituents about the complicated world of credit, and with the great progress it’s made along the way. 2009-09-02T01:49:53+00:00 http://capitalgoodfund.org/index.php/site/banking_on_america/ http://capitalgoodfund.org/index.php/site/banking_on_america/#When:15:34:33Z Authored by Nabeel Gillani According to a recent story by the AP, nearly 10,000 new bank branches were opened throughout the U.S. in the past five years (1).  However, only 1 out of every 10 of these branches was opened in an inner city neighborhood.  Instead of focusing on low-income neighborhoods, most banks gravitate towards middle to high-income areas, undoubtedly because they assume the risk of banking to higher income individuals is significantly less.  At the same time, when banks do offer their services to lower-income customers, they tend to charge them the most for overdraft and other fees.  In fact, in 2008 banks made a record $38.5 billion from overdraft fees, however “the most cash-strapped customers are the hardest hit by such fees, with 90 per cent of overdraft revenues coming from 10 per cent of the 130m checking accounts in the US.” (2)  Given a paradigm in which lower-income populations lack access to the benefits of the banking system—and even when they do gain that access, they face high fees—it isn’t surprising that these population mistrust the banking sector. The result is a system that effectively shuts out millions of Americans from accessing mainstream financial services—and inhibits many more from taking the steps they need to raise their standards of living.  Poverty Perpetuation An absence of banks in America’s poorest neighborhoods often means turning elsewhere in order to access the services banks offer.  As we discussed in last week’s blog (link to last week’s post), nearly 30 million people regularly turn to check-cashing businesses in order to cash their checks. The majority of these check-cashers are located in predominately minority, inner-city neighborhoods without a significant commercial banking presence.  With only 15% as many check cashing agencies as commercial banks in the U.S., check cashers still handle approximately $80 billion annually, much of this the income of poor households.  Moreover, check cashers charge a significant fee for something that is done for free at banks, further reducing the amount of money left in the pocket of the low-income individual without a financially sound alternative. It’s probably no coincidence that the number of individuals estimated to be below the poverty line—38.8 million—and the number of individuals that regularly access check-cashing services, 30 million, are very similar.  A recent Huffington Post article cited the addition of 1.5 million Americans to poverty in 2008 (3).  This number, an increase of roughly 13% from previous years, stemmed in large part from economic turbulence and subsequent financial distress due to the recession.  It is especially important in difficult economic times for struggling families to save money wherever possible.  Without the banks to meet the basic financial needs of many low-income populations, it becomes that much more difficult to realize those essential savings as families turn to payday lenders, check chasers, loan sharks and other expensive fringe and predatory financial service providers. CGF’s Approach A major part of creating an inclusive economy is ensuring that it is accessible by all, particularly those who have traditionally been denied participation in it.  This inclusion especially means an extension of basic services that meet the fundamental needs of low to moderate-income populations.  One of these services is the administration of affordable capital—CGF’s primary goal.  By offering small loans at an affordable price to individuals either lacking access to commercial banks or lacking the creditworthiness to receive a loan, CGF bridges the widening gap between a banking sector that is increasingly risk averse and a group of Americans who are increasingly in need of financial support.  In addition, CGF’s technical services offered to members of low and moderate-income communities contribute to the growth of a knowledge economy.  This prepares otherwise financially disenfranchised populations to not only utilize the services offered by banks, but to do so in a manner that optimizes the benefit to themselves and their families.  Banking on America will require a new sector approach, using innovation to help Americans unleash their creative capacity on their way to a better quality of life. In addition, CGF is working to help struggling families save even more money by educating them about free and low-cost methods for lowering energy bills, and working with our business borrowers to incorporate environmentally-friendly products and services that help them attract more customers and revenue. Lastly, through CGF’s partnership with Washington Trust bank, we are able to provide free bank accounts to any borrower that is currently without an account, and we encourage those borrowers that do have accounts to make the most of the services offered to them. (1) http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_BANK_BRANCH_EXPLOSION?SITE=MOSTP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT (2) http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/43d18c68-851d-11de-9a64-00144feabdc0.html (3) http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/08/19/numbers-of-poor-could-inc_n_263443.html 2009-08-21T15:34:33+00:00