The Foundation for Sustainable Development – FUNDES, was born in 1984, inspired by the vision of Stephan Schmidheiny and Archbishop of Panama, Marcos McGrath, who believed in the impetus of Small and Medium Businesses in Latin America as a contribution to social and economic development.
A “typical year” does not exist for FUNDES. The foundation has experienced a vigorous and dynamic growth in the course of its most recent years, after a difficult learning process in the first three. In 1993, close to 1,000 small business owners attended training courses in investment, planning, organization, cost calculation, production and marketing; more than 2,600 used the consulting services. In the same year, approximately 530 credit guarantees were granted.
Despite the credit focus, FUNDES quickly realized that strengthening the MSMEs required other elements. It was then that the organization changed its focus from credit to the guarantee of business development services. In order to do so, FUNDES invested in the research of different aspects of the legal and financial environment and the different Latin American countries’ institutional insecurity. After four years of publications and studies, the first steps were taken in the Environmental Conditions Imrovement Program.
From this moment on, FUNDES began to offer a portfolio of services and began to invest heavily in studies and work methodology designs, thus strengthening their knowledge capital regarding MSMEs in Latin America. FUNDES is currently operating in 10 Latin American countries, where they develop programs and actively support the MSMEs by strengthening their capacities and environment.
In accordance with the vision of its founder, FUNDES has focused on the adventurous spirit and efficiency. In the words of Stephan Schmidheiny, “a good go-getter is someone who solidly develops his business, with a clearly-defined vision and mission, a great work capacity and a special ability to efficiently administer the available capital, resources and technologies.”
