Former Avon Executive to Join Grameen and Expand Loans in U.S.

During her 18 years working for Avon Products, Andrea Jung never forgot that while the $10-billion business’s core purpose was to sell cosmetics, its direct-selling model helped millions of women become entrepreneurs and improve their lives.

“People think it’s about selling lipstick,” says Ms. Jung, who led Avon for 12 years. “But it was founded more than 125 years ago on the vision that any woman can be given a chance to earn money and have the self-esteem that comes from financial independence.”

In her new role as the head of the microfinance nonprofit Grameen America, Ms. Jung keeps the successes of the iconic “Avon Lady” in mind. As she sets out to grow Grameen and the number of women it helps to become business owners, she draws comparisons to the Avon Lady’s ability to improve her lot and the broader impact that women’s financial success can have on the nation’s economic recovery.

Says Ms. Jung, “Whether you’re running a one-person business or a 40,000-employee corporation, the more women we can involve in economy creation, the better off their families are going to be and the better off our country is going to be.”

Growth Plans

Grameen America was created in 2008 by the Nobel Peace Prize recipient Muhammed Yunus to help poor women in the United States build small businesses and make better lives for themselves and their families by providing microloans, training, and support.

To date, the organization has given out more than $140-million in small loans of about $1,500 apiece to more than 23,000 women. Ms. Jung wants to increase the number of borrowers to 150,000 in the next two years and hopes to boost that number to half a million borrowers by 2019.

The organization has already expanded rapidly from its first center in Queens, N.Y., to other cities nationwide, adding as many as 17 branches in 2013 alone. Over the next year, Ms. Jung says, she plans to focus on making sure that all of the newer branches have the staff and resources to operate effectively, and to work with the nonprofit’s board to decide where to further extend Grameen’s reach. Among the possible places for expansion: Chicago, Miami, and Philadelphia, as well as more outposts in Texas, where Grameen has a center in Austin.

She will also be working to implement new technology platforms across all Grameen’s offices so the organization can go cashless and paperless, improve efficiency, and provide women with opportunities to learn new tech skills. Mobile money mechanisms like Square and Google Wallet, which work from a smart phone, will likely be part of that effort, she says.

Broad Experience

Ms. Jung, who is 55, says the opportunity to lead Grameen America came at the right time. “I’m at a point in my life where I don’t need a job,” says Ms. Jung, who will draw no salary at Grameen. “I wanted a real shot over the next 10 years, not in a for-profit job or a government or policy job, but in a unique hybrid, to be able to show how capitalism applied for social benefit can be scaled to make a difference for women who were not given a chance.”

She says that in her many years at Avon she learned the importance of being able to articulate the mission of a company whose business model was about promoting entrepreneurship. She also learned about the legal, financial, and personnel challenges required to expand an organization nationally.

And although she comes from the business world, large-scale nonprofit work is not new to Ms. Jung. Under her leadership, the Avon Foundation for Women, which focuses on fighting breast cancer and domestic violence, awarded nearly $1-billion to support programs devoted to women’s health and empowerment.

Her corporate and nonprofit experience was attractive to Grameen’s leaders, but her hands-on experience working to improve women’s lives by helping them start businesses was what really sold the nonprofit.

“Andrea is uniquely qualified to accelerate our mission given her broad global experience and deep involvement over the past two decades in women’s empowerment,” Mr. Yunus said in a written statement.

Spotlight on Gains

Ms. Jung says she will craft a fundraising expansion strategy for Grameen aimed at appealing to grant makers, corporate donors, and individual philanthropists in the cities Grameen seeks to serve.

Ms. Jung hopes to raise the budget, now at $32-million, to between $150-million and $200-million in the coming years. Fortunately, she relishes fundraising; she says it gives her a chance to highlight the gains made by the women Grameen has helped.

Those stories, Ms. Jung says, get at what she cares about most: Giving women who have not had access to capital a chance to build businesses—and improve the economy in the process.

“I’m a zealot about this. I really believe that women are the solution and need to be the solution to the resurgence of the U.S. economy,” she says. “Whether it’s in business, to better governance on boards. You name it, they’re the answer.”