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FINCA Ranks in Top 1 Percent of Best Run Charities
Earns 4-Star Rating for Seventh Consecutive Year

The Board of Directors and staff of FINCA International are pleased to announce that, for the seventh consecutive year, FINCA has received Charity Navigator’s 4-Star rating for sound fiscal management. The designation from America's premier charity evaluator puts FINCA in an elite group of nonprofit organizations. According to Charity Navigator, "Only 1% of the charities we rate have received at least seven consecutive, 4-star evaluations.”

The "exceptional" designation from Charity Navigator “differentiates FINCA International from its peers and demonstrates to the public that it is worthy of their trust.” FINCA “consistently executes its mission in a fiscally responsible way, and outperforms most other charities in America." FINCA has received a 4-star rating from Charity Navigator every year since the organization began ranking charitable organizations in 2002.

The Village Banking Method

The Village Banking method is the form of microlending that FINCA International pioneered. It is economic democ-racy in action. A Village Banking group is a support group of 10-50 members — usually mothers — who meet weekly or biweekly.

Village Banking group members guarantee each others’ loans and run a democratic organization. The group guarantee is important, since borrowers don’t have the kind of collateral a commercial bank would be seeking to lend them money. Groups represent grassroots democracy in action; members elect their own leaders, design their own bylaws, keep the books, manage the funds, and are fully responsible for loan supervision, including enforcing penalties for non-compliance.

FINCA's job is to provide initial training to the Village Banks on group dynamics, help them write their bylaws and elect officers, and train them on basic principals of financial management. In addition, where possible, FINCA uses the regular meetings to inject messages about non-financial issues (maternal health, childcare, nutrition, etc.) that are delivered either by FINCA or partner organizations.

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