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Unitus Announces $2.7 Million Grant from Omidyar NetworkFunds Will Help Unitus Enable Economic Self-Empowerment for Millions of Poor People WorldwideRedmond-based Unitus, an organization which increases access to microfinance for the world's poorest people, recently announced that it has received a major grant of $2.7 million from Omidyar Network, an investment group fostering individual self-empowerment on a global scale. The grant will enable Unitus to expand operations and hire key staff members in its Redmond , Wash. , and Bangalore , India , offices. With the additional support in place, Unitus plans to form partnerships with at least four new microfinance institutions, and to reach an additional 1 million clients by the end of 2006. By 2015, Unitus expects to be helping 10 million clients in India alone work their way out of poverty. "Omidyar Network's generous commitment is tremendous validation of our work and could not come at a better time," said Unitus President and CEO Geoff Davis. "We have ambitious plans to grow exponentially over the next few years. Our partnership with Omidyar Network gives us significantly greater resources to reach our goals and bring microfinance to more of the world's poor than ever before." Doug Solomon, Omidyar Network's vice president of investments, said, "We share Unitus's belief that microfinance offers a sustainable and lasting solution for enabling the poor to lift themselves out of poverty through economic self-empowerment. With its focus on accelerating profitable growth and financial transparency among microfinance institutions, Unitus represents exactly the kind of organization Omidyar Network is eager to invest in." |
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