The Relationship Between Microfinance Mission Drift and Financial Returns to Stakeholders

Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, Ahead of Print. Some microfinance institutions (MFIs) can drift from their social mission, generating well-studied effects for their borrowers. We focus on the lesser-known effect of mission drift on the financial return to other stakeholders (employees, government, micro-savers, and banking creditors). Using a sample of 534 MFIs, we calculated the economic value distributed by the MFI to these stakeholders by considering salaries, taxes, and interest paid. We found a negative relationship between average loan size and return to employees (RTE), government, and banking creditors, and a positive relationship between women borrowers and RTE and government. This is explained by the fact that mission-focused MFIs are usually small, labor-intensive institutions with a stable business model. We found a positive relationship between average loan size and return to micro-savers, and a negative relationship between women borrowers and return to micro-savers. The reason is that many mission-focused MFIs do not offer micro-savings, undermining financial inclusion.

Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly | https://journals.sagepub.com/action/showFeed?ui=0&mi=ehikzz&ai=2b4&jc=nvsb&type=etoc&feed=rss  

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