Pierre Omidyar is the mastermind of eBay - and, of course, is a multi billionaire. He also operates Omidyar Network, which is known as a "philanthropic investment firm."
No doubt, Omidyar is a major supporter of microfinance. So, today he announced that Omidyar Network will donate $9 million to Unitus, which is an organization that focuses on financial services for those people living on less than $2 a day (which is about 3 billion or so). To this end, Unitus partners with a variety of microfinance institutions (MFIs)
The goal for the $9 million:
"Unitus will continue to support a rapidly growing portfolio of start-up and early-stage MFIs in developing countries by employing its proven acceleration model. Using this model, in 2007 Unitus partners grew seven times faster than the industry average, as measured by the total number of clients added. Since 2001, Unitus and its partners have reached more than 3.5 million of the world's poor, making it one of the fastest growing MFI networks."
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