MICROCAPITAL STORY: Whole Planet Foundation and Silverton Foundation Team with Triodos Bank to Loan $1m to Timorese Microfinance Institution (MFI) Moris Rasik for Increased Micro-lending

Austin-based Whole Planet Foundation and Silverton Foundation recently announced a collaborative commitment of USD 600,000 to microfinance institution (MFI) Moris Rasik of Timor-Leste for rural micro-lending projects. The Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste (East Timor) is the poorest country in Asia. The funding for Moris Rasik will be augmented by an additional USD 400,000 from Triodos Bank of the Netherlands.

Whole Planet Foundation (WPF) was incepted in 2005 by Whole Foods Market, a natural and organic foods supermarket, in partnership with the Grameen Bank of Bangladesh. Nonprofit WPF provides grants to MFIs in developing nations and aims to provide micro-lending in villages that Whole Foods Market uses to source its products. Whole Foods Market is WPF’s main financial support making the largest contribution, USD 1.5 million, to the nonprofit in 2007. WPF’s total assets, as of December 2007, were USD 2.6 million (p 2), up from USD 593,515 in December of 2006 (p 10). As WPF reported only that it had a negative net income in its 2007 Tax Return, its return on assets could not be quantified. The Tax Return also reports that in 2007 WPF disbursed USD 211,414 through micro-loans (p 28).

Silverton Foundation, established in 2000, gives grants between USD 2,500 and USD 100,000 with the broad goal of empowering the impoverished. According to its most recent Annual Report (2006), Silverton held total assets of USD 15.4 million with USD 625,000 directed towards grants and programs (p 12). Silverton’s net investment income was self-reported to be USD 2.8 million (p 1). Silverton began working in Timor-Leste in 2003. In 2006, they established their connection to Moris Rasik by giving the MFI a grant totaling USD 60,000 (p 95).

Based in the Netherlands, Triodos Bank was established in 1980. Triodos’ structure allows for investment banking, private banking and European branches in the Netherlands, Belgium, the United Kingdom and Spain with a representative office in Germany. Triodos’ mission is to provide finance for socially and environmentally beneficial and sustainable enterprises in both the private and public sectors. Triodos has participated in microfinance activities since 1994, providing loans, equity investments, guarantees and short-term trade finance, through its Hivos-Triodos Fund Foundation, Triodos-Doen Foundation and Triodos Fair Share Fund. According to its 2007 Annual Report, Triodos had total assets summing the equivalent of USD 2.9 billion (p 66) and a return on equity of 5.6 percent (p 7). MicroCapital recently reported on Triodos here.

Moris Rasik (MR) was established in 2000 in Timor-Leste. Now the country’s largest MFI, it operates in 11 of Timor’s 13 districts. According to its MIX Market profile, MR’s services include providing loans and savings to both group and individual clients, 94 percent of whom are women. Operating in rural areas, MR had 10,189 borrowers and 10,732 savers as of December 2007. MIX Market also reports MR’s gross loan portfolio to be USD 2.2 million and total assets to be USD 2.7 million at the end of the 2007 fiscal year. Their debt-equity ratio was 109.04 percent, and their return on assets was -1.43 percent.

By Sarah Knapp, Research Assistant

Additional Resources:

Moris Rasik: About, Mix Market Profile

Silverton Foundation Annual Report 2006, Press Release, Tax Return 2006

Triodos Bank: About, Annual Report, Hivos-Triodos Fund Foundation, Mission, Organizational Structure, Triodos-Doen Foundation, Triodos Fair Share Fund

United Nations Development Programme: “Timor-Leste Human Development Report 2006”

Whole Planet Foundation: About, Tax Return 2007