that is written like an advertisement . please help improve it by removing promotional content and inappropriate external links and by adding encyclopedic content written from a neutral point of view . july 2016 learn how and when to remove this template message grassroots business fund type non profit organization founded june 2008 founder harold rosen website www.gbfund.org the grassroots business fund is a non profit based in washington dc . it has field offices in kenya peru and india . 1 their mission is to build and support high impact enterprises that provide sustainable economic opportunities to thousands of people at the base of the economic pyramid . these enterprises are grassroots business organizations in developing countries that empower large numbers of the poor as producers of income generating commodities and products as consumers of affordable goods and services and as independent entrepreneurs . gbf actively supports enterprises throughout latin america africa india and southeast asia . 2 contents 1 history 2 leadership 3 portfolio 4 impact 5 awards 6 references 7 external links history edit the origins of gbf can be traced back as far as 2000 at the international finance corporation ifc when harold rosen founded the small and medium enterprise sme department a joint ifc world bank department . in 2004 mr. rosen started the grassroots business initiatives gbi which aimed to build sustainable non financial intermediaries that would empower large numbers of high impact businesses and individual producers consumers and entrepreneurs . gbi worked directly with high impact businesses to strengthen their business performance scale up their operations and improve their sustainability . from 2004 to 2007 gbi implemented over 40 technical assistance projects and investments impacting the lives of over 3.4 million direct and indirect beneficiaries at the bottom of the socioeconomic pyramid . 3 in 2008 the gbi department was transformed into an independent organization called the grassroots business fund gbf . 4 leadership edit harold rosen is executive director of the grassroots business fund . harold spent 30 years managing ifc s emerging markets investments and leading ifc into new geographic areas and sectors such as microfinance technical assistance and smes . 5 he founded the world bank s group sme department and then spun this off into grassroots business fund an independent organization funded by ifc and a number of others . 6 portfolio edit gbf makes equity quasi equity and debt investments . quasi equity investments are debt instruments with embedded equity features such as convertible loans royalty based loans and warrants . gbf targets investments between 750 000 to 2 500 000 and has an average investment horizon of 5 to 7 years . gbf can also provide short term working capital loans to export oriented businesses between 40 000 and 150 000 through a separate facility sme export facility . 7 to date gbf has invested 7 million invested in 26 businesses across 10 countries . 8 impact edit during 2009 keystone supported gbf to make a significant investment in its own evaluation systems captured in what they believe is a best in class framework called impact planning assessment and learning ipal framework . 9 gbf s innovative monitoring and evaluation framework called impact planning assessment and learning ipal which allows gbf and its clients to better respond to results and experiences of their beneficiaries . ipal effectively measures analyzes and communicates the poverty alleviation impact of its clients not only for internal purposes but more importantly to guide and support its clients social mission . in doing so gbf focuses on capturing impact data from its clients rather than just narrative reports . gbf s initial focus is determining metrics that allow its clients to set and manage objectives improve impacts and strengthen management systems . gbf integrates its ipal framework throughout the investment life cycle and ensures that ipal is integrated into its clients business processes . gbf tailors ipal to each gbo which includes basic reporting on activities and outputs a survey based review of beneficiary impacts a social return on investment calculation and client feedback 10 awards edit the group of 20 and ashoka s changemakers with support from the rockefeller foundation have launched an online competition to find the best models worldwide for public private partnerships that catalyze finance for small and medium enterprises smes . the g 20 sme finance challenge the first ever competition launched by the g 20 is a unique financial inclusion effort aimed at giving small entrepreneurs a chance to grow their businesses 11 gbf was named one of 14 winners out of over 350 submitted proposals . the winners receive funding and gbf s executive director harold rosen accepted an invitation to the november 2010 g 20 summit in south korea . for this event he will join the leaders from around the world to discuss sme s role in poverty alleviation including gbf s innovate solutions to some of the most challenging problems facing the world today . references edit http www.nextbillion.net news grassroots business fund expands international presence to kenya http www.giirs.org for funds pioneer http www.nextbillion.net blog grassroots business initiative grows tall http www.nextbillion.net blog 2010 07 21 gbf 2nd anniversary http www.bbc.co.uk iplayer episode p00f32rm business daily microfinance and impact investment http www.skollworldforum.org confirmed speakers harold rosen http wn.com grassroots business fund http in.reuters.com article idinindia 50686020100806 http www.keystoneaccountability.org services systemsdesign examples http www.sais jhu.edu bin u f gbf description2010.pdf http www.changemakers.com g20media g20challenge external links edit grassroots business fund website global impact investing rating system retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title grassroots business fund & oldid 729590849 categories international non profit organizationsnon profit organizations based in washington d.c.hidden categories articles with a promotional tone from july 2016all articles with a promotional tone navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages add links this page was last modified on 13 july 2016 at 07 33 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; additional terms may apply . by using this site you agree to the terms of 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