Nusenda Credit Union, a credit union based in New Mexico, is partnering with W.K. Kellogg Foundation, the Albuquerque Community Foundation; the McCune Charitable Foundation; and local, community-based organizations through City Alive to create an alternative financial system that supports marginalized and underrepresented local communities.
The alternative financial system, called Co-op Capital, is a community-based microlending program that transforms the traditional lending model that provides loans through member organizations.
In the Stanford Social Innovation Review, the Co-op Capital microlending program helps to provide underserved communities the access to the capital they need.
The microlending program also helps build creditworthiness, making "equitable, culturally adept lending possible by bringing community organizations directly into the process."
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William D. Eggers and Paul Macmillan of Dowser write about the social entrepreneurs slowly and steadily dirsupting the world of philanthropy. According to Forbes, philanthropy disruptors are those that believe “no one company is so vital that it can’t be replaced and no single business model too perfect to upend.”