Greg Casagrande

Founder SPBD Microfinance and MicroDreams

About

MicroDreams provides a suite of micro-enterprise development services, making the jump from simple microfinance to successful micro-enterprise creation at scale. MicroDreams is the brainchild of Greg Casagrande, who brought a Grameen-style model to Samoa and tweaked it to fit the local needs. His South Pacific Business Development Foundation (SPBD) embodied an “entrepreneur-as-customer” approach driven by the needs of those trying to create first-time small businesses. Today SPBD in Samoa is a financially self-sufficient organization that has worked successfully with over 10,000 of Samoa’s 30,000 families. Now Greg has formed MicroDreams to replicate the Samoa model in Tonga and help micro-enterprise organizations in Bolivia, Ecuador and Peru to achieve high impact and financial self-sufficiency. Using start-up donor funding, MicroDreams can drive financially self-sufficient organizations that leverage traditional microfinance
and multiply the incomes of millions.

For more information see SPBD Microfinance and MicroDreams websites:  www.spbd.ws; www.microdreams.org or visit Greg Casagrande's, MicroDreams', or SPBD Microfnance's Wikipedia pages.

In the News

SPBD Microfinance

• Milestone for 128 Million of the world's poorest- Samoa Observer

  • part one
  • part two
  • part three
• Microfinance Response Overwhelming - the Fiji Sun
• Mr. Microfinance Here to Help- the Fiji Sun
• The Microfinance Promise in Financial Inclusion: Evidence from Pacific Region- Baljeet Singh, University of the South Pacific
• SPBD marks one year in Tonga with a launch of micro-insurance product
• Small scale, huge help - New Zealand Catholic
  
• Microfinance backs the little people - Samoa Observer
• IFC Launches new Pacific Finance Initiative
• SPBD 10 Year Anniversary and Woman of the Year 2010 Award
• SPBD Celebrates $30 million milestone - Samoa Observer
• SPBD on NBC Nightly News
• SPBD Spreads to Tonga - Pacific Business Online

MicroDreams

•   Samoa’s Deputy Prime Minister Nominates Greg Casagrande as CNN Hero - Samoa Observer
•   MicroDreams Supports Samoan Tsunami Relief
•   News from MicroDreams’ blog

 

Recent Publications and Research

SPBD Microfinance

• Microenterprise: Laying the Foundation for Economic Development- U.S. State Department
• Harvard Business School- Samoa Tala
• Indiana University- SPBD Case Study- final with teaching notes  
• SPBD: Empowering Dreams
• SPBD YouTube Channel

MicroDreams

•   MicroDreams Foundation Newsletter - October 2010
•   MicroDreams Foundation Newsletter - July - August 2010
•   MicroDreams Foundation Newsletter - May 2010
•   MicroDreams Profile 2009
•   MicroDreams Samoan Tsunami Relief Summary 2009
•   Links to MicroDreams:
  • YouTube
  • Facebook

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