Opportunity International is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization chartered in the United States. Through a network of 47 program and support partners, Opportunity International provides small business loans, savings, insurance and training to more than 14 million people in the developing world. It has clients in more than 20 countries and works with fundraising partners in the United States, Australia, Canada, Germany, Switzerland, Singapore, Hong Kong and the United Kingdom. Opportunity International has 501(c)(3) status as a tax-exempt charitable organization in the United States under the US Internal Revenue Code (Employer Identification Number: 54-0907624).
History
In 1971, Al Whittaker left his job as president of Bristol Myers International Corporation in America to found the Institute for International Development Incorporated (IIDI), a micro-enterprise organization. Barry Harper, IIDI's first Executive Director, and development officer Dan Swanson together oversaw establishment of IDII offices in Colombia, Peru, Honduras, Kenya, the Dominican Republic and Indonesia.
Australian philanthropist David Bussau founded Maranatha Trust and began administering loans in Indonesia in 1977. In 1979, he joined IDII as the director of the Indonesia office and began expanding IDII's work in Asia.
In 1988, the two merged their efforts under the name Opportunity International.
In 1991, a group of women supporting Opportunity International called the Women's Opportunity Network created a group-lending methodology called the Trust Group in which groups would be responsible for their peers and hold them accountable for repayment. Opportunity began testing this group lending and Trust Group method in the Philippines in 1992, and in the same year, they began to focus on serving entrepreneurs at even more extreme levels of poverty.
Realizing that no one group can tackle the issues of poverty alone, Opportunity began developing partners - independent, self-governing organizations with similar motivations - in countries and regions around the world. In 1998, Opportunity formalized these partnerships into the Opportunity International Network - a group of partners that now includes 47 entities in over 20 countries.
In 2000, Opportunity began building a series of permanent and mobile banks to reach more remote areas of countries and attempt to serve those that had previously lacked access to financial services. These formal financial institutions (FFIs) took the form of commercial banks, development banks or credit unions that could accept deposits, borrow money and/or accept investments.
In 2002, Opportunity International developed and founded MicroEnsure, a microinsurance entity providing weather-indexed crop insurance, affordable health insurance, and protection against other risks. MicroEnsure was the world's first microinsurance intermediary and received a generous grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in 2008. MicroEnsure spun off from Opportunity as its own company, and in 2013 it became a for-profit social enterprise.
On January 24, 2006, David Bussau gave the 10th Australia Day Address with the subject "A Giving Nation." And in January 2008, David Bussau was named Senior Australian of the Year 2008 for his work in the fight against global poverty.
Al Whittaker died in 2006.
Opportunity was founded as and remains a non-denominational Christian organization that serves all its clients regardless of their race, religion, ethnicity or gender.
In 2017, Opportunity International's operation in Malawi was sold to southern African banking group FMB Capital.
Annual report
According to the annual report 2021, the total revenue in 2021 stood at $54.2 million and the total expenses amounted to $46.9 million, with 88% of its budget going towards programs and the remaining 12% going towards fundraising, general and administrative expenses.
Operational model
Trust groups
Like many microfinance organizations, Opportunity often lends to clients through group lending. At Opportunity, these lending groups are called Trust Groups and consist of 10 to 30 entrepreneurs who pledge to guarantee each other's loans. The groups meet regularly to share personal and business advice, receive financial training and vote on loan-related topics.
Trust Groups are designed to build a safety net by guaranteeing each other's loans - if one member defaults on a weekly payment, everyone else must cover the costs. The idea is that the group guarantee replaces the need for collateral, so that credit becomes available to those previously excluded from formal financial services.