Why should we be surprised that all-but-loansharking-loansharks have apparently moved into the formerly charitable sacred cow of microlending? Commercial banks and finance firms are only 39 percent of the microfinance institutions in the world, but their microlending serves 60 percent of the clients. Banks have figured out how to squeeze big profits from the smallest of loans.

Photo: Beans sold at a shop operated by someone who benefited from a microloan. Credit: timbrauhn on flickr.

In an exciting development for the global social sector, GuideStar International and TechSoup Global announced today that they will be “combining their operations to strengthen their respective capacity building programs for civil society organizations.” While this marriage does not include GuideStar in the U.S. it is a big development for civil society in a number of ways.

Back in January on our Web site and in our winter 2009 issue of Nonprofit Quarterly, we profiled fiscal and economic conditions in 14 states from Arizona and California to Pennsylvania and South Carolina. Now we’re proud to introduce our second installment to this ongoing series covering seven new states—Georgia, Hawaii, Massachusetts, Maryland, Minnesota, Nebraska and Oregon.