Dollar for Dreams: Scaling Microlending in the United States

This paper presents the experiences and lessons of five grantees of the Scale Academy for Microenterprise Development (the Academy) whose primary focus has been on scaling.

U.S. microenterprise practitioners have identified scale as one of their principal challenges for years. The Academy addresses this challenge by offering organizational development grants, technical assistance and peer learning to leaders in the field. Each of the five grantees in the paper experienced success and challenges during the course of the three years that they participated in the Academy. Their experience demonstrates lessons for practitioners and funders in the areas of:

• Market research and marketing;
• Loan products and pricing
• Underwriting and decision making;
• Risk management;
• Customer service;
• Expansion strategies;
• Structure and staffing.

The grantees’ experiences suggest that an organization’s ability to successfully scale up operations is not entirely dependent on context. It underscores the need for microenterprises to be disciplined in improving systems and practices and entrepreneurial in capitalizing on opportunities if they want to scale their operations.