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PO Box A524
Sydney South NSW 1235, Level 11, 227 Elizabeth Street Sydney NSW 2000

Telephone: 1800 812 164

© 2024 Opportunity International AustraliaABN 83 003 805 043

How We Work Local Staffing

Learn how our innovative microloan programs cultivate local leaders and equip them with the tools and training to lead their communities out of poverty.

Opportunity International Australia works through local partners to ensure that we’re understanding and meeting the needs of the families we’re reaching.

Local to the communities they’re serving, loan officers and staff at these partner organisations speak local languages, understand community challenges and concerns and, in doing so, enable you to have a greater impact.

Committed to helping families transform their lives, we only partner with capable local organisations that share our mission.

Mission alignment

Local partners must share Opportunity’s values and objectives, and be unlikely to ‘sell out’ the poor in order to satisfy the financial requirements of fund providers. We look for partners:

  • With a primary objective of helping people out of poverty
  • That work in the poorest, largely unserved regions
  • Operating within a market that exhibits a relevant ‘gap’, with conditions that are favourable for microfinance
  • With sound strategies that show their continued intent to help people out of poverty.
  • That demonstrate commitment to meeting people’s needs and having an impact.

Capability

Because we’re committed to being good stewards of your donations, we partner with organisations that can operate sustainably. We look for partners with:

  • Excellent, inspiring leadership
  • Strong risk management and governance
  • A solid operating platform and capable staff
  • Good financial performance and an ability to manage significant growth
  • Comprehensive business plans and projections underpinning a sound future
  • A history of financial self-sufficiency or, for start-ups, a forecast to be so within two years.

The partnership process

  1. Initial partner assessment
    If we assess likely mission alignment, we will fund a formal business planning exercise, a step that forms a key input for the next phase of the partnership process – due diligence. In some cases, information obtained in this phase has led to a decision not to proceed with a relationship.
  2. Detailed partner assessment
    A due diligence exercise is conducted around mission alignment, performance and leadership credentials, together with an assessment of environmental risks. Our Investment Committee then reviews new partnership recommendations and proposals for ongoing support of existing partners, either passing a proposal on to our Board or making a decision not to proceed.
  3. Partnership agreements
    If Board approval is obtained, normal transaction execution processes are undertaken in the form of alliance, debt and equity agreements (as applicable).
  4. Ongoing relationship management
    This includes attendance at Board meetings, meetings between partners and their relationship managers, and monthly reporting by partners of financial and operational performance.

We're in it for the long haul

We seek to build long-term partnerships to ensure families are being served effectively. Our first partnerships in Asia began in the 1980s, and our Indonesia partnerships have been active since the 1990s.

We also seek to be a good steward of resources. Primarily, this involves working hard to achieve and maintain sustainability, meaning that our program partners operate without losing their capital. Opportunity works hard to keep interest rates as low as possible.

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