IMPULSO – You give the wings they need to fly!
IMPULSO believes at its core that the dreams of low income community microentrepreneurs are possible through access to financial solutions for their businesses. We believe that microcredit is a powerful and transformative financial tool when placed in the hands of entrepreneurs devoted to developing their enterprises and communities. Through IMPULSO’s online portal Anjos Investidores Sociais (Angel Social Investors) we are looking to funnel the necessary resources to microentrepreneurs excluded from traditional financial systems. These resources will reach beneficiaries through a network of social organizations in Brazil.
About You
About You
First Name
Lina Maria
Last Name
Useche Jaramillo
http://twitter.com/#!/impulsocredito
Facebook Profile
About Your Organization
Organization Name
Aliança Empreendedora
Organization Website
Organization Country
Brazil, PR
Country where this project is creating social impact
Brazil
Is your organization a
Non‐profit/NGO/citizen sector organization
How long has your organization been operating?
More than 5 years
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Innovation
Entry Form title
IMPULSO – You give the wings they need to fly!
What change do you want to bring to the world?
IMPULSO believes at its core that the dreams of low income community microentrepreneurs are possible through access to financial solutions for their businesses. We believe that microcredit is a powerful and transformative financial tool when placed in the hands of entrepreneurs devoted to developing their enterprises and communities. Through IMPULSO’s online portal Anjos Investidores Sociais (Angel Social Investors) we are looking to funnel the necessary resources to microentrepreneurs excluded from traditional financial systems. These resources will reach beneficiaries through a network of social organizations in Brazil.
What are the primary activities of your project?
IMPULSO’s Portal aims to connect individuals around the world with low income microentrepreneurs throughout Brazil. This tool allows Angel Social Investors to invest and engage with businesses registered on the site, and track their progress and repayment of loan installments. Once an entrepreneur pays back 100% of the credit, the Angel receives the amount that they invested in credits within the site to reinvest in another microentrepreneur. The database of entrepreneurs on the site consists of a network of partner organizations who register their entrepreneurs in the portal and utilize the tool. Today, two organizations are in the process of registering their entrepreneurs in the Portal: Acreditar—Human Capital and Banco Pérola.
What is innovative about your initiative? How is it a new contribution to the field?
For those who know the microcredit market it is evident that the market focuses on providing credit for microentrepreneurs that offer the least risk for credit organizations. At the same time, there are other organizations that work with more risky populations, such as novices, youth, entrepreneurs from rural areas with little access to capital, among others. Organizations that fund the less traditional group of entrepreneurs find it difficult to secure the necessary “funding” in the microcredit market due to the “risk” they represent, even if they have default rates as low as 3%. The Portal is looking to use crowdfunding to supply the capital needs of these organizations and to increase the impact of microcredit in underserved regions and populations.
Another great innovation of this project is the network of support that Aliança Empreendedora provides. Through this network, microentrepreneurs have access to much more than simply microcredit—they become part of a network that provides access to knowledge. Further, the microentrepreneurs have access to commercialization of products through organizations like the ethical and just Solidarium Comércio, as well as through other partners in the network. This model provides integral support to microentrepreneurs.
What stage is your project in?
Operating for 1‐5 years
Tell us about the community that you engage? eg. economic conditions, political structures, norms and values, demographic trends, history, and experience with engagement efforts.
With more than 21 million people managing their own business, in 2010 Brazil registered the highest entrepreneurial index among the G-20 countries. In the majority of cases, these entrepreneurs are by definition “entrepreneurs of necessity” (people that need to start a business due to lack of opportunity), in contrast to the “opportunity entrepreneurs”-- from the classification and nomenclature used by the GEM (Global Entrepreneurship Monitor) and by the LBS (London Business School). The 2010 Gem report reported that start-up investment in Brazil demands relatively low capital: 18% of respondents reported spending less than 2 thousand reais to start a business, while for 23.1% start-up investments require somewhere between R$10 and R$ 30 thousand reais. The majority of respondents have used their own resources (36%) or have requested family contributions (70.5%). The reason, they have said, is that the access to bank credit here is very expensive due to high demand and the difficulties from the sector.
In our experience, entrepreneurs that initiate enterprises out of necessity tend to have more management difficulties with their business and particularly to access to credit. The majority are entrepreneurial women who develop economic activities inside their houses, like sewing and food production, among other activities.
Share the story of the founder and what inspired the founder to start this project
I am Colombian, and was born in a small coffee city called Chinchiná, in the Caldas region. I lived in Cali until I was 3 years old and then moved to Buenos Aires, Argentina, where I lived for ten years. I then moved to Curitiba in 1997, the place where I currently live and plan to stay. All of this moving was a result of my parents’ profession as missionaries, and I believe that the call to others is in my blood. They always incentivized me when I started working in the social sector, even while knowing the difficulties I would have. I started my career when I meet people with an open mind at the University, and found that it was possible to escape the regular destiny of having to work for a company, and that I could innovate in an organization working to bring useful tools for those who wish to work and start an enterprise, but don’t know how. What fascinates me the most is the possibility to invest my talents in something that generates change and impact in people’s lives.
Social Impact
This Entry is about (Issues)
Please describe how your project has been successful and how that success is measured
We are working to generate access to entrepreneurs so they have space to dream, implement and grow; a place in which they can scale and strengthen their enterprises. We currently support directly more than 250 microentrepreneurs with microcredit and 700 indirectly. They are productive groups or microentrepreneurs from low income communities. The impact is evaluated through the monitoring of specific metrics, for example:
- Default Rate;
- Average loan value;
- Percent of informal clients;
- Average time to release credit;
- Credit renewal rates;
- Impact generated by the microcredit to the entrepreneur’s quality of life (due to the proximity that we have with the entrepreneurs it is possible to measure the differences that access to credit and other productive services are having in entrepreneurs’ lives)
- Number of Anjos Investidores Sociais (Angel Social Investors) involved.
How many people have been impacted by your project?
101-1,000
How many people could be impacted by your project in the next three years?
1,001-10,000
How will your project evolve over the next three years?
Our first step will be to diversify the kinds of projects accepted in the Portal. By the end of the year, beyond the microentrepreneurs asking for credit, we will also have entrepreneurship projects, registered through our partner organizations across Brazil. Our objective is to create a network of 20 social and microcredit organizations that leverage resources for their projects and for the microentrepreneurs supported through crowdfunding from individuals around the world, using the IMPULSO online Portal as their main connector.
Sustainability
What barriers might hinder the success of your project and how do you plan to overcome them?
Our biggest obstacle is the lack of specific legislation. It is hard to generate innovation when you have little updating in the laws that rule over the country. This context creates a barrier that makes it hard to create an attractive proposition for Angel Investors, who in other countries have platforms like kiva.org or microplace.org can recoup invested monies and this way leverage individual fundraising, not to mention the fiscal incentives for donations present in the US and Europe.
Tell us about your partnerships
IMPULSE was born from an alliance of organizations; a network with 17 social organizations affiliated with Aliança Empreendedora, plus the organizations affiliated with Solidarium Comércio Ético e Justo Ltda and our microcredit partners: Acreditar and Banco Pérola. Beyond these initiatives there are other partners and investors, like the Wal Mart Institute, that supports Aliança Empreendedora since 2006, and has donated the first Microcredit Fund to initiate IMPULSE’s activities in 2008.
Another partner is the Instituto Camargo Correa. Its support helped us develop a financing project for collectors of recyclable material in São Paulo. We also have partners that have invested both in the Fund and the Portal, like the Instituto Lojas Renner and the Instituto Ventura. A very important marketing partner for us is Portel Novelli (USA), which helps us with international marketing. Finally, we have strategic partners through the international networks in which IMPULSO is part of, like YouthActionNet, from the International Youth Foundation, of which we are fellows since 2010; also we have the social entrepreneurs network from Ôgunte – Better World Powered by Women, in which we were finalists from the “Women’s Social Leadership Awards 2011”.
Current annual budget of project, in US dollars
$100,000‐250,000
Explain your selections
In this new model, the Anjos Investidores Socials (Angel Social Investors) are the main financiers who are individuals from around the world that believe in our mission and objectives in investing in Brazilian social entrepreneurship.
We also have private companies that sponsor the projects from Aliança and IMPULSO because they believe in the cause, and because it is aligned with their strategy.
Finally, we have the support of grassroots organizations that invest their human and financial resources in the mobilization of Angel Investors for the Portal!!
How do you plan to strengthen your project in the next three years?
Aside from increasing the number of Anjos Investidores (Angel Investors) in the portal, we are creating a project inside the portal to receive investment from companies through the sale of Gift-Cards. The Gift-Cards will be made available to the companies’ employees, clients, suppliers and others. Additionally, we anticipate partnering with companies that administrate credit card based fidelity programs, so as to match accumulated rewards points with Gift-Cards in the Portal. In this way we will amplify the fundraising potential of our website.
Challenges
Which barriers to employment does your innovation address?
Please select up to three in order of relevancy to your project.
PRIMARY
Lack of visibility and investment
SECONDARY
Lack of access to information and networks
TERTIARY
Lack of skills/training
Please describe how your innovation specifically tackles the barriers listed above.
Please describe how your innovation specifically tackles the barriers listed above.
First, the Portal project from IMPULSO aims to amplify the access to credit for microentrepreneurs that are normally excluded from traditional financial markets. The Portal allows, through collective financing, these microentrepreneurs to gain importance and access to resources for their businesses.
In second place, we increase the access of these entrepreneurs to a network of organizations that have a shared mission to support them and provide direct productive services.
Last but not least, we work with a series of entrepreneurial educational tools in partnership with social organizations that focus on the financial management of business and personal finances.
Are you trying to scale your organization or initiative?
If yes, please check up to three potential pathways in order of relevancy to you.
PRIMARY
Enhanced existing impact through addition of complementary services
SECONDARY
Influenced other organizations and institutions through the spread of best practices
TERTIARY
Grown geographic reach: Within host country
Please describe which of your growth activities are current or planned for the immediate future.
Our first step is to diversify the kinds of projects accepted in the Portal. By the end of the year, beyond the microentrepreneurs that request credit, we will also have the microentrepreneurs’ projects registered by our affiliated organizations from all over Brazil. Our primary objective is to form a network of around 20 social and microcredit organizations that leverage resources for their projects and for the microentrepreneurs supported through crowdfunding from individuals from around the world using the IMPULSO portal as their main connector.
Do you collaborate with any of the following: (Check all that apply)
Technology providers, NGOs/Nonprofits, For profit companies.
If yes, how have these collaborations helped your innovation to succeed?
The internet agency that has built the platform is our main technology partner, providing all of our infrastructure and IT support for the Portal.
We also have private companies that sponsor the projects from Aliança and IMPULSO because they believe in the cause and because it is aligned with their strategy.
Finally, we have the support of grassroots organizations that invest their human and financial resources in the mobilization of Angels for the Portal!!
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