Global Partnerships Awarded $180,000 by Murdock Trust
towards Microfinance Investment Strategy

Seattle - Seattle-based nonprofit Global Partnerships has been awarded a $180,000 capacity-building grant by the M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust of Vancouver, Washington, to help the organization manage and expand its microfinance investment funds. Since 2005, Global Partnerships, which invests in microfinance institutions in Latin America, has launched three microfinance investment funds that direct $48.5 million in capital reaching almost 850,000 entrepreneurs in seven countries with microloans and other services. The Murdock Trust's grant will help the organization increase its impact even further.

"Because of the M.J. Murdock Trust's generous grant, thousands more hard-working Latin American families will have access to services that help them break the cycle of poverty," said Global Partnerships President and CEO Rick Beckett. "In a time of shrinking access to credit for the world's poorest people, the Murdock Trust's support is especially farsighted."

Dean Allen, CEO of McKinstry Company and board member for Global Partnerships said, "This grant is a wonderful endorsement of Global Partnerships' innovative investment fund strategy, and testament to the Murdock Trust's leadership in helping influential Northwest organizations deepen their impact over the long term."

The grant awards $180,000 to Global Partnerships (GP) over a three-year period, aimed at expanding GP's capacity for managing investment funds. Elements of the project include building GP's staff capacity to efficiently manage the growth of the funds; broadening GP's base of socially motivated investors; and creating a more sophisticated knowledge management system to manage and analyze fund data.

Global Partnerships' three microfinance funds combine philanthropic donations with socially motivated capital to invest in high-performing microfinance institutions (MFIs) in Latin America that provide financial and social services to people living in poverty, especially women and the rural poor. The funds address a key challenge MFIs face: access to "patient" capital--funding for longer terms and at rates more affordable than those offered by conventional capital markets. Since launching its first fund in 2005, Global Partnerships has significantly increased the number of microfinance borrowers it reaches, from 150,000 in 2006 to 848,000 as of March 31, 2009.

Despite the growth of microfinance in Latin America, only an estimated 15 percent of the population who could benefit from microfinance is currently reached. One quarter of the region's population lives on less than $2 a day. Microfinance can dramatically improve the lives of borrowers, who use profits from their businesses to improve living conditions for their families.

About Global Partnerships: Global Partnerships, founded in 1994, is a nonprofit organization dedicated to expanding opportunity for people living in poverty, with $48.5 million in capital dedicated to mission. GP has offices in Seattle, Washington, and Managua, Nicaragua. www.globalpartnerships.org

About the M. J. Murdock Charitable Trust: The Murdock Trust's mission is to enrich the quality of life in the Pacific Northwest by providing grants and enrichment programs to nonprofit organizations that seek to strengthen the region's educational, spiritual and cultural base in creative and sustainable ways. http://www.murdock-trust.org