Trockman Microfinance Initiative

Join the fight against global poverty

Trockman Microfinance Initiative (TMI) offers undergraduate students the opportunity to learn about microfinance from both technical and applied perspectives. Students will also be able to apply the business skills they’ve learned to a humanitarian effort, and help raise awareness and promote discussion on microfinance in the Indiana University community.

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What is microfinance?

According to the Grameen Foundation:

Relying on their traditional skills and entrepreneurial instincts, very poor people, mostly women, use small loans (usually less than $200), other financial services, and support from local organizations called microfinance institutions (MFIs) to start, establish, sustain, or expand very small, self-supporting businesses.

A key to microfinance is the recycling of loan dollars. As each loan is repaid—usually within six months to a year—the money is recycled as another loan, thus multiplying the value of each dollar in defeating global poverty, and changing lives and communities.

Our vision

To provide a lasting and distinctive learning opportunity for bright students through the application of learned skills to the developing world. Passionate, high-caliber college students can truly make a difference, and we hope TMI will remain a vehicle for such students to contribute to the global fight against poverty.