The Citi Foundation Update highlights our current investments and leadership role in our five focus areas: Microfinance and Microenterprise; Small and Growing Businesses; Education; Financial Education and Asset Building; and Community Development (U.S. and Canada). In addition, the Citi Foundation works with its partners in its priority focus areas of Microfinance and Microenterprise, Small and Growing Businesses and Community Development to support environmental innovations and embed a "green" component within key areas of their work. For more information about the innovative ways Citi is collaborating with its partners towards the economic empowerment of individuals and families in the communities where we work, visit www.citifoundation.com or click on the focus areas listed above.

OUR LEADERSHIP in Microfinance and Microenterprise

For more than 25 years, the Citi Foundation has been committed to providing the poor and the unbanked with access to the financial services they need to achieve economic self-sufficiency. We are proud to be one of the leading funders of the microfinance movement since its inception, supporting the industry's ongoing efforts to achieve greater scale. Over the past decade, the Citi Foundation has granted more than $70 million in support of 350 microfinance programs and organizations across 57 countries. We are committed to supporting microfinance and microenterprise through our funding, on-the-ground partnerships, and employee engagement. Below are two examples of our leadership in this area.

Citi Network Strengthening Program

In 2007, the Citi Foundation made a 3-year, $11.2 million grant commitment to create the Citi Network Strengthening Program (NSP), a collaborative effort among the SEEP Network, 12 regional and national microfinance networks, and Citi employees throughout Asia Pacific, EMEA and the Americas. As the program nears the end of year 2, it has successfully enabled each of the 12 networks to refine and strengthen their roles and align their operational goals with their strategies. To date, the 12 participating networks' members have increased outreach by 19%, growing to approximately 53 million microfinance clients worldwide, increased loan portfolios by more than $3.8 billion and increased overall membership by 8%. For more information about the Citi Network Strengthening Program, please click here.

ACCION International and REDCAMIF:
"Encuentro Centroamericano de Microfinanzas 2009" Conference in El Salvador

In September 2009, the Citi Foundation and ACCION International partnered with REDCAMIF to host the "Encuentro Centroamericano de Microfinanzas 2009" conference in El Salvador. The event convened representatives from 17 countries and more than 110 organizations, including 40 of the leading voices across the microfinance sector in Central and Latin America, microfinance institutions, policy makers, NGOs, foundations, investors, national, regional and international networks, and researchers. Over the course of the two-day conference, participants discussed practical approaches to engaging in microfinance in the current economy, investment and funding of MFIs in the region, managing risk, consumer protection, collaboration and future opportunities for the sector. The conference concluded with impassioned closing remarks by Don Eduardo Sibaja, Costa Rica's Economic Minister, who addressed the political and economic aspects of the current financial crisis – and the future of the region. For more information about the conference, please click here.

ADVANCING INNOVATION

In order to maximize our resources, the Citi Foundation invests in testing innovative programs designed to help our grantees attain greater scale and strong economic outcomes for the communities and individuals they serve. We seek opportunities where we can contribute to fostering new solutions within our focus areas in order to advance each field of work.

Learning Society:
"The Adventures of Agent Penny" Program

"The Adventures of Agent Penny" comic book series was launched as a fun and innovative way to present personal financial education concepts to primary school children. All "Agent Penny" comic books include financial literacy themes that are characterized in short stories through the adventures of the "superheroes" Agent Penny and Will Power. With the Citi Foundation's support, "Agent Penny" was first launched in Singapore in 2004 and has since been successfully implemented in China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia and Taiwan. Aspects of the program have also been successfully transferred to Spain and the United States. In addition to presenting youth financial education through comic books, the "Agent Penny" program includes scripts for children's drama productions, digitalized teacher resources and a teacher professional development component in order to increase the program's long-term sustainability and impact in teaching young people the importance of wise money management. For more on the "Agent Penny" program, please click here.

MEASURING IMPACT

The Citi Foundation's approach to grantmaking includes a focus on metrics that demonstrate a "social" return on investment. As a result, we incorporate impact measures into all of our major grant programs in order to help our grantees measure the impact of their work beyond the number of individuals served or dollars granted.

E + Co:
"Increasing the Efficiency and Impacts of Clean Energy Small and Growing Business Development" Program

For more than 15 years, E+Co has been combating poverty and climate change by empowering small and growing enterprises to supply households, businesses and communities in Africa, Asia and Latin American with clean and affordable energy in order to reduce their dependence on expensive, environmentally degrading, and unreliable energy sources. In 2009, the Citi Foundation provided support for E+Co's "Triple Bottom Line" measurement program, which reports on the impact and performance of its clean energy investments using both quantitative and qualitative metrics. Based on this methodology, E+Co reports that for every $6.50 it invests, one person received clean energy and for every $9 invested, one ton of carbon is offset. The Citi Foundation's investment in this program has seen significant results in "triple bottom line" – economic, environmental and social – benefits for underserved communities around the world.

COLLABORATION

The Citi Foundation collaborates with external partners to attract co-investment, support knowledge building and promote the replication of successful strategies in our priority focus areas. In addition, we work with our internal business partners to ensure local leadership and the ability to deliver "more than philanthropy" worldwide by leveraging Citi's business expertise and the involvement of Citi volunteers.

Corporation for National and Community Service:
"United We Serve" Initiative

United We Serve is a nationwide initiative to create a sustained, collaborative, and focused effort to meet community needs and make service a way of life for all Americans. Citi is proud to have supported the campaign, which included 81 days of service this past summer. The success of Citi's involvement can be attributed to a collaborative effort of internal and external communications, opportunities to serve by various Citi businesses and the commitment to service by our employees. As a result, a Citi "United We Serve" message was posted on more than 3,000 Citi ATMs and close to 5 million bank statements to Citi customers through the country. More than 200 Citi-sponsored service events took place nationwide, and 2,500 Citi volunteers answered the call to serve by participating in these opportunities. For more information about "United We Serve", please click here. If you are a Citi employee who is interested in becoming involved with volunteerism, please click here.

KNOWLEDGE BUILDING

The Citi Foundation seeks to develop a deeper understanding of community needs and successful philanthropic investments in each of our priority focus areas. We do this by supporting activities designed to engage key partners and inform future investments, so that successful programs can be replicated in other Citi markets around the world.

AVID Center:
"College Readiness: A Strategic Investment" Forum

For nearly 30 years, Advancement Via Individual Determination (AVID) has worked to provide first-generation college students with encouragement, day-to-day academic support, a vision of college as attainable and guidance in how to navigate the educational system. In June 2009, the Citi Foundation and AVID hosted a forum entitled "College Readiness: A Strategic Investment." The forum provided philanthropic leaders in the field of education an opportunity to address critical questions surrounding college access in the current economic environment and to learn more about AVID's work. The forum, which included a keynote speech by Greg Darnieder, U.S. Department of Education, Special Assistant to the Secretary on College Access, focused on the positive results AVID is achieving and highlighted the organization's role as an integral partner of the Citi Foundation's college access and success strategy.