Catalyst fund

The HIFIVE Catalyst Fund (HCF)

The HCF is HIFIVE’s main tool for achieving results under its objectives. As of December 2014, 96 grants totaling $20.5 Million have been awarded to local institutions. HIFIVE Grantees have included:

Illustrative achievements of HCF include:

Grants to several MFIs have helped finance expanded outreach into rural areas. New branches are being opened in some of the areas least served by financial institutions, including l’Estere, Pont Sonde, Mirebalais, Saint Marc, Port de Paix, and Fort Liberte. These new branches support agricultural activities as well as development of micro and small enterprises through the expanded access to credit, savings and other financial services they bring to these communities.

Working with its partners, HIFIVE continues to increase the availability of credit to support agricultural value chains and the farmers and enterprises that comprise them.

One grant provided access to various credit products for the members of a leading coffee producers’ cooperative in Belle-Anse in the South East, enabling them to finance increased coffee production and commercialization.

Two MFIs in the central plateau have developed credit products through HCF grants to peanut producers, enabling them to increase production and revenue. One MFI will provide credit for the purchase of portable pumps to irrigate the crop during the dry season, while the other will provide production cycle credits to growers, enabling them to take better advantage of market prices and to support alternative income crops.

Another credit union is using their grant to develop mechanisms for local mango growers and their federation which will support expanded production and improved revenues for the farmers by providing longer term credit for the development of a tree nursery, a production cycle credit to the growers, and credit to support expanded purchase and treatment for export by the growers’ federation.

Marketing and promoting the availability of financial products and services is a challenge in rural zones with dispersed population. A HIFIVE grant is helping one MFI address this problem by developing new solutions, including a mobile platform for publicity.

Support for the use of technology to expand outreach of financial services and to increase financial inclusion is addressed by HCF grants (and by HMMI technical assistance grants, covered separately). One such grant to an MFI will be used to redesign and to automate credit processes and expand the variety of products available to clients and their delivery mechanisms.

HIFIVE grants have also been used to support the development and distribution of improved market information, such as the annual “Census of the Haitian Microfinance Sector.”

Is your organization a private Haitian organization or private international for profit/non-profit organization legally registered and recognized under the laws of Haiti? Has your organization been working in microfinance, financial services, Information of communication technologies services or related activities in Haiti for at least two years?

 Interested in submitting a grant request to HIFIVE? Download an initial proposal below and submit to HCFapplication@hifive.org.ht

HIFIVE CATALYST FUND (HCF) Initial Proposal English
HIFIVE CATALYST FUND (HCF) FULL PROPOSAL – English
FONDS CATALYSEUR DE HIFIVE (FCH) PROPOSITION INITIALE – French
FONDS CATALYSEUR DE HIFIVE (FCH) PROPOSITION DETAILLEE – French