Microfinance Focus, October 4, 2011: Social Investor Global Partnerships has lent $2.5 million to two Colombian MFIs: Fundación Amanecer and Contactar. The loans were made by Global Partnerships’ Social Investment Fund 2010 (SIF 2010), a five-year, $25 million debt fund.

In August, 2011, Global Partnerships made its first loan of $1 million to Fundación Amanecer. In September, GP disbursed $1.5 million to a second Colombian partner, Contactar, a nonprofit microfinance organization in southwest Colombia that is one of the few MFIs in the country to focus on rural clients.

With the addition of these two partners to its portfolio, GP is supporting the work of 33 microfinance organizations and cooperatives in eight countries in Latin America, including Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua and Peru.

SIF 2010 has disbursed a total of $20.25 million in loans to 20 organizations since the fund was closed in September, 2010, including 12 new partners to Global Partnerships. SIF 2010 requires that 75 percent of organizations that it funds offer such “microfinance-plus” services.