MicroPlace’s mission is to help alleviate global poverty by enabling everyday people to make investments in the world’s working poor.

Our idea is simple.

Microfinance institutions around the world have discovered an effective way to help the world’s working poor lift themselves out of poverty. These organizations need capital to expand and reach more of the working poor. At the same time, millions of everyday people here in the United States are looking for ways to make investments that yield a financial return while making a positive impact on the world. MicroPlace simply connects investors with microfinance institutions looking for funds.

The result: more microfinance in the world, satisfied investors, and above all, fewer people living in poverty.

A loan of a $20 can allow a poor woman to start a business and work her way out of poverty. In many countries, organizations that function like banks make loans to the poor. These organizations need funds to lend to the poor. Your investment helps fund these organizations. And, they are willing to pay you a return for the funds you invest. You can fight poverty and get your money back with interest!

Find out more at: www.microplace.com

via MicroPlace.com.

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TransFair USA, a 501©(3) nonprofit organization, is one of twenty members of Fairtrade Labelling Organizations International (FLO), and the only third-party certifier of Fair Trade products in the United States. We audit transactions between US companies offering Fair Trade Certified™ products and the international suppliers from whom they source, in order to guarantee that the farmers and farm workers behind Fair Trade Certified goods were paid a fair, above-market price. In addition, annual inspections conducted by FLO ensure that strict socioeconomic development criteria are being met using increased Fair Trade revenues.

TransFair brings certification to the US Fair Trade Certified coffee is now the fastest-growing segment of the US specialty coffee market. TransFair USA opened its doors in late 1998 and began certifying Fair Trade coffee in 1999.

In the past 10 years, TransFair has leveraged limited resources to certify over 334 million pounds of coffee into the U.S. market. This translates to an estimated additional 140 million dollars flowing into rural farming communities throughout Latin America, Africa and Asia. In 2008 alone, TransFair certified nearly 90 million pounds, yielding and additional 32 million dollars to these farming communities, and enabling cooperatives and their members to not only have a better standard of living, but also invest in community projects such as building schools, providing healthcare and improving the quality of their coffee.

More of each dollar spent on any of these products goes back to the farmers and farm workers who produce them. The US Fair Trade market has thus empowered farmers and farm workers around the world to determine their most pressing local economic development needs for themselves, and reinvest in their products, cooperatives, and communities in appropriate and sustainable ways.

via TransFair USA | About Us.

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FLO is the leading standard setting and certification organization for labelled Fairtrade. Products carry the Fairtrade Certification Mark as the independent consumer guarantee that producers in the developing world get a better deal.

Fairtrade Certified Products have helped build economic independence and empowerment for Fairtrade Certified small farmer organizations and their members, bringing them economic stability and a higher standard of living. Beyond being paid a fair price (Fairtrade Minimum Price) for their produce, the Fairtrade Premium helps producers to build necessary social infrastructure of which the following are only some of the examples:

* Improved access to low or no-interest loans
* Technical assistance for building infrastructure to improve production
* Communications systems, and collectively-owned transport and processing equipment
* Better health care and education
* Technical training and skill diversification for cooperative members and their families

Currently, FLO facilitates the sustainable development and empowerment of disadvantaged producers and workers in 59 countries.

What is Fair Trade?

Fair Trade is a trading partnership, based on dialogue, transparency and respect, that seeks greater equity in international trade. It contributes to sustainable development by offering better trading conditions to, and securing their rights of, disadvantaged producers and workers — especially in the South. Fair Trade organizations (backed by consumers) are actively engaged in supporting producers in awareness raising and in campaigning for changes in the rules and practices of conventional international trade.

Fair Trade’s strategic intent is:

* Deliberately to work with marginalized producers and workers in order to help them move from a position of vulnerability to security and economic self-sufficiency.
* To empower producers and workers as stakeholders in their own organizations;
* Actively to play a wider role in the global arena to achieve greater equity in international trade.

Sources: fairtrade.net

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