Scott James, who writes a column for Forbes.com on Corporate Social Responsibility, features a Q&A with CRS & CEO Dr. Carolyn Woo and our resident expert of microfinance, Tom Shaw.
Scott: Carolyn, I read the Introduction Letter you wrote to the CRS community in December. Now that you are officially in your new gig,please tell me more about what you are bringing to CRS from so many decades running academic institutions (including getting the undergraduate business program at Notre Dame to #1).
Carolyn: I think I bring a heads-up approach to CRS. The CRS staff is always busy, tackling the task at hand, whether it’s responding to a disaster or helping extremely vulnerable people to lift themselves out of poverty. So they’re in the trenches with their heads down. My job is to be heads up, looking 5 to 10 years down the road at the major changes in our environment, thinking about how we need to position the organization or develop new capabilities to support our people in the field.
Scott: And Tom, tell me about your role at CRS and specifically about CRS’ involvement in microfinance.
Tom: CRS does a lot of work in developing countries with something called Savings and Internal Lending Communities (SILC) in which a small group forms within a community, pools their savings and then take loans out of that pot. It is targeted to the extremely poor who perhaps can only save a couple of dollars or less each week with very small loan sizes as well.
