Root Capital is a nonprofit organization operating in poor rural areas of

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

Latin America Latin America or * french: Amérique Latine, link=no * ht, Amerik Latin, link=no * pt, América Latina, link=no, name=a, sometimes referred to as LatAm is a large cultural region in the Americas where Romance languages — languages derived f ...

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Southeast Asia Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, south-eastern region of Asia, consistin ...

. According to its website, Root Capital "seeks to maximize the positive social and environmental impact of tswork through a three-pronged strategy: finance, advise, and catalyze."

Operations

Root Capital claims to follow a three-step approach towards making a positive impact in the poor rural areas of

and

where it operates. The three steps are: * ''Finance'': This involves making loans to rural small and growing businesses, including both short-term and long-term loans. * ''Advise'': This involves delivering financial training to current and prospective clients. * ''Catalyze'': This involves innovating on their own methodology to increase their own impact. According to its impact page, Root Capital has disbursed US$1.5 billion between 1999 and 2020 and reached 9.9 million household members in rural communities. Root Capital is one of several money managers to pursue a

gender lens investing Gender lens investing is the practice of investing for financial return while also considering the benefits to women, both through improving economic opportunities, and through securing the social well being of girls and women. The term was coined ...

strategy. In 2012, Root Capital launched their Women in Agriculture Initiative (WAI) to address the unique challenges faced by women in rural areas. The WAI uses capacity-building training and gender-lens investing to unlock growth at women-led and gender-inclusive businesses. These businesses, which represent 48% of Root Capital's portfolio, must have at least 30% women farmers and employees (or at least 20% if they are also women-led).

Funding

Root Capital seeks funding from both individual donors and foundations. Foundations that have funded Root capital include

Mulago Foundation The Mulago Foundation is a private foundation focused on high impact philanthropy: investing in charities and philanthropic opportunities that have the highest impact. The foundation was originally envisioned by Rainer Arnhold, a San Francisco pe ...

Jasmine Social Investments Jasmine Social Investments is a New Zealand-based private foundation started by the entrepreneur Sam Morgan in 2006 following the sale of his company Trade Me to Fairfax Media. Similar resources * Acumen Fund * Bill and Melinda Gates Foundati ...

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Peery Foundation The Peery Foundation is a private foundation based in Palo Alto (near San Francisco), California, US. According to its website, it "primarily invests in early to mid-stage social entrepreneurs who are effectively addressing the issues of poverty. ...

External reviews

Charity Navigator Charity Navigator is a charity assessment organization that evaluates hundreds of thousands of charitable organizations based in the United States, operating as a free 501(c)(3) organization. It provides insights into a nonprofit’s financial s ...

had given Root Capital a four-star rating (its highest possible) continuously beginning in 2005, but downgraded their rating to three stars on December 1, 2019. Charity evaluator

GiveWell GiveWell is an American non-profit charity assessment and effective altruism-focused organization. GiveWell focuses primarily on the cost-effectiveness of the organizations that it evaluates, rather than traditional metrics such as the percent ...

had a conversation with the CEO of Root Capital in September 2011, and planned to publish a detailed review of Root Capital in 2013, however GiveWell's review of Root Capital was still not complete as of November 2019.

References

External links

* {{official website, http://www.rootcapital.org Charities based in Massachusetts Development charities based in the United States 1999 establishments in the United States