All you do-gooder econ and finance students out there, get excited: two Georgetown students—Brian Gallagher (MSB ‘10) and Ben Sacher (SFS ‘12)—are starting a microfinance club.

The idea behind microfinance is that giving small loans to entrepreneurs in impoverished communities who are too poor to get traditional loans from banks.

Gallagher explained how Georgetown Microfinance would operate in an e-mail:

The club will focus on promoting microfinance and providing loans to entrepreneurs both locally and in developing countries. Our core activity is to provide micro loans to entrepreneurs by building and managing a student run evergreen micro loan fund. Once the entrepreneur?s new business is successful, they will repay the loan allowing the fund to continue to grow and positively affect an increasing number of individuals each year.

The club just got approval from the Center for Social Justice earlier this week.

Gallagher says they are planning to raise money for the fund through donations, letter writing campaigns, social events, the sale of fair trade goods on campus and other fundraisers.  He also says they will be working with other campus groups and the local branch of Grameen Bank, the bank started by Nobel Prize-winning economist and microfinance pioneer Muhammad Yunus.