Grameen America: Lifting America Campaign under Lockdown

By early 2020, Mindee Barham, vice-president of development at the microfinancing organization Grameen America, which focused on empowering low-income female entrepreneurs by offering them microloans to develop and grow their own businesses, had overseen the successful implementation of the first year of Grameen America’s ten-year Lifting America campaign for strategic growth. This campaign was intended to increase membership to 400,000 people; to issue loans amounting to $12 billion; to raise $300 million, including $100 million in philanthropy and $200 million in debt capital; and to enter new locations. However, the COVID-19 pandemic unexpectedly derailed the funding and implementation of the campaign, and given the pandemic's large impact on Grameen America’s vulnerable members, it threatened the existence of Grameen America itself. How should Grameen America respond to the pandemic? What would become of the Lifting America campaign? And what could Grameen America do to support its members through the COVID-19 pandemic without jeopardizing the organization’s future plans?