Has microfinance run amuck?  Perhaps. News headlines of late have reported: suicides in India linked to over-indebtedness; SKS's record-breaking IPO profits; and, most recently, the potential sacking of Professor Mohammed Yunus from the very Grameen Bank which he founded thirty-plus years ago.

A thoughtful conversation
Yet through these headlines, a thoughtful conversation is finally starting to take shape. Gone is the notion that microfinance is a "magic bullet." And the public has begun to learn that "microfinance" is far more than small loans to help women buy sewing machines. Leading voices have provided thoughtful commentary, including Felix Salmon, David Roodman, Elisabeth Rhyne, and Jonathan Lewis. 

See for yourself
So before we throw the baby out with the bath water, join us for our industry's most important conversation, taking place this May 23-24th in New York.  Listen to NPR Planet Money's Adam Davidson moderate a thoughtful discussion, "Balancing Act: Mission, Profit, and Impact in Microfinance" before you make up your mind. Learn from leading thinkers and practitioners as they debate whether microsavings is the future of microfinance.  And hear the evidence for yourself: leading economists and microfinance evaluation researchers - Dean Karlan, Daryl Collins, Jonathan Morduch, Abhijit Banerjee and more - share the proof they've gathered so far about what microfinance does and does not accomplish. Most importantly, hear directly from entrepreneurs here in the United States about their struggles to access capital and their experience getting a microloan for their small enterprises.

Join us
Join us for two days of learning, conversation, and dialogue at the 2011 Microfinance USA conference, where the nation's leading microfinance champions exchange ideas and information that will set the agenda for the future of the field.

This is our moment.

-Eric Weaver, Founder & CEO