Our Mission
By providing financial solutions and training, we empower people living in poverty to transform their lives, their children's futures and their communities.
Our Vision
Our vision is a world in which all people have the opportunity to achieve a life free from poverty, with dignity and purpose.
Our Motivation
We respond to Jesus Christ's call to love and serve the poor. We seek to emulate the Good Samaritan, whose compassion crossed ethnic groups and religions. We serve all people regardless of race, faith, ethnicity and gender.
TRANSFORMING LIVES: What is SPM?
Our approach to alleviating poverty is framed by Social Performance Management, which is about effectively translating our social mission into reality. Social Performance Management ensures that we understand clients’ needs and equips us to design products and services that will enable them to most effectively transform their futures and their communities.
Opportunity empowers people living in poverty to transform their lives, their children’s futures and their communities through financial services and training. We achieve this through our global network of more than 40 socially focused microfinance partners.
With over 40 years’ experience in microfinance, we have seen the powerful ripple effect that’s created when a woman can access a loan to start a business, open a bank account to secure savings, purchase insurance and participate in training opportunities — she is able to strengthen her family, create jobs and fuel local economies.
The Need
Our Response
Our Impact
Glossary
A
- APR
- Annual Percentage Rate
- APY
- Annual Percentage Yield
B
- BC
- Banking Correspondent
- BI
- Business Intelligence
C
- COCA
- Code of Conduct Assessment
- CGAP
- Consultative Group to Assist the Poor
- CPP
- Client Protection Principles: The 7 Client Protection Principles (CPPs) describe industry best practices relating specifically to the protection of microfinance clients. They were developed by the Smart Campaign in 2009.
E
- EIR
- Effective Interest Rate
I
- IRR
- Internal Rate of Return
M
- MCWG
- Microfinance CEO Working Group - a group of 8 microfinance networks who collaborate to encourage endorsement of Triple Crown initiatives in microfinance.
- MFI
- Microfinance Institution
- MFT
- Microfinance Transparency - an industry initiative to promote transparency around credit product pricing
- MIS
- Management Information System(s)
- MIX
- runs "Mix Market", a public data hub where MFIs share institutional data to enhance transparency and market insight
N
- NPS
- Net promoter score
O
- OER
- Operating Expense Ratio
- OSS
- Operational self-sufficiency
P
- PAR
- Portfolio at Risk
- PPI
- Progress out of Poverty Index - a poverty measurement tool designed by Grameen Foundation
- PRS
- Partner Reporting System
R
- ROA
- Return on Assets
- ROE
- Return on Equity
S
- Social audit
- third-party assessment of SPM practices
- SMART objectives
- stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound
- Smart Campaign
- An initiative to standardize best practices for client protection (includes Smart client protection certification process)
- SME
- Small medium enterprise
- SPI4
- CERISE Social Performance Indicators 4 - a self-assessment tool for partners to assess adherence to the USSPM and other best practice standards
- SPM
- Social Performance Management
- SPTF
- Social Performance Task Force - developed the Universal Standards for SPM. Calum Scott is a Board member.
T
- TA
- Technical Assistance
- Triple Crown Initiatives
- refers to 3 key SPM initiatives: 1) Endorsing the Smart campaign, 2) Endorsing Microfinance Transparency campaign and 3) Committing to implement the USSPM
U
- USSPM
- Universal Standards for SPM are a global, industry-wide effort to clarify and standardize SPM practices. Their development was coordinated by the Social Performance Task Force (SPTF) with input from stakeholders and they were published in 2012.