The Scale Academy for Microenterprise Development is designed to provide financing, training and technical support for a set of high-performing microenterprise organizations that have demonstrated a commitment to scaling-up operations to serve more clients.

Eight organizations participated in the academy until mid-2008 when MicroBusiness Development Corporation suspended operation. To learn more about the strategy and implementation efforts of the seven current participants, click on each organization's name: 

ACCION USA • Boston, Mass.
ACCION New Mexico • Albuquerque, N.M.
ACEnet (Appalachian Center for Economic Networks) • Athens, Ohio
Justine Petersen Housing and Reinvestment Corporation • St. Louis, Mo.
Opportunity Fund • San Jose, Calif. (formerly known as Lenders for      Community Development)
Mountain BizWorks • Asheville, N.C.
WESST Corp • Albuquerque, N.M.

Academy grantees were chosen in May 2007 through a Request for Proposals process based on their work toward organizational growth and expansion, such as standardization, infrastructure development and capitalization. Other eligibility requirements included: at least five years of experience providing microenterprise services, documented evidence of having achieved a significant level of scale relative to the field, and a clear identification of a specific scale-up strategy that would be pursued during the academy.

Each grantee can receive up to $35,000 for one year to fund activities that support their scale-up strategy. Grantees also participate in a number of peer-learning activities.

Envisioned as a four-year project, the academy is operated by FIELD in collaboration with the Association for Enterprise Opportunity (AEO), and is funded by the Citi and the Charles Stewart Mott foundations.  

With the challenge of achieving greater scale a long-standing issue in the U.S. microenterprise field, the Scale Academy is viewed as a way to focus resources on a set of microenterprise organizations that are poised to scale-up and, with this injection of support, produce an immediate return in terms of increased numbers of clients served.

Beyond working intensively with academy participants, the project is expected to produce documentation and tools that will be broadly shared with organizations at different stages of institutional capacity for reaching scale—thereby amplifying the project's value and impact.

The academy grew out of research indicating that there are about 10 million entrepreneurs who fit the profile of a typical microenterprise program client—for example, low-income individuals, women, minorities, immigrants and individuals with disabilities. Yet the field serves only a small fraction of them. At the same time, it is generally recognized that if the U.S. field is to demonstrate its appeal, effectiveness and viability, and also attract support from the private and public sectors, programs must serve larger numbers of microentrepreneurs.