As co-founder and executive director of the Capital Good Fund, Andrew Posner has big plans for his fledgling organization. In his 40 Under Forty application he wrote, “We are currently the largest student micro-lender in the U.S., but soon I hope that we will be the largest and most effective micro-lender in the country.”
Posner graduated in 2007 from California State University Northridge with a B.A. in Spanish language and culture, and then earned a master’s in environmental studies at Brown University. While studying renewable energy and ways to finance it, Posner read “Banker to the Poor,” by Muhammad Yunus, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize and founder of Grameen Bank. That book became Posner’s inspiration.
“I realized that micro-finance could be used to empower America’s working poor to lift themselves out of poverty while also empowering them to take the lead on environmental issues through education, entrepreneurship, civic engagement and investment,” he said.
While still a graduate student at Brown, Posner co-founded the Capital Good Fund in February 2009. The fund has made about 20 loans to low- and moderate-income Rhode Islanders, totaling almost $37,000. So far, the organization has maintained a 90 percent repayment rate. The fund has also provided business and financial training to 25 people.
In the short time that Posner has been in charge of CGF, he has helped found the Campus Microfinance Alliance, which has already raised $200,000 to replicate the fund microfinance model at other colleges and universities. He was also recently elected to the board of directors of the Association for Enterprise Opportunity, a “national leadership organization for micro-enterprise development.”
At 25 years of age, Posner is overseeing a volunteer staff of 20 as Capital Good Fund continues to create and offer new solutions in green micro-financing. •
