Opportunity International’s mission is to transform lives and end intergenerational poverty. To meet this mission, we will increasingly require a focus on developing multiple income streams including growing fundraising, institutional funding, partnership working, and impact investing.
As we come towards the end of our current strategy, we have considered how we can best manage our organisation to realise this ambition, and will make the following changes to our leadership from 1 February 2025:
Our current CEO, Nana Francois will be moving to lead Opportunity Microfinance Investments Ltd (OMIL), a separate registered limited company, focussed on managing our share-holding investments in financial institutions, maximising impact, and making a financial return to redeploy into Opportunity International UK. She will focus on generating new earned income from impact investing and other commercial sources.
Our current Deputy CEO, Mary Oakes will become the new CEO of Opportunity International UK, responsible for the day-to-day management of the charity and growing fundraising and institutional funding.
The two organisations will work closely together to increase overall income and enable us to build stronger futures for our clients.
Reflecting on the changes, Mary Oakes says,
“Over the last fifty years we have shown how effective we can be in delivering changes that have a lasting and permanent effect, particularly for the rural poor. If we are to realise our ambitions for our next strategic period, we will need to double down on income growth and think differently to increase our impact. I am delighted to be able to continue to work with Nana whilst focussing on developing Opportunity International UK for the next season. I am excited at the chance to make lasting change that has a lasting benefit to so many.”
Excited about the prospect of leading and developing OMIL, Nana Francois says, “Innovation has always been at the heart of the Opportunity International model. Our history shows that our clients invest in their own businesses over time, generating returns and changing opportunities for the long term. With that background, we are confident that we can complement the programmatic work that philanthropy can deliver. We aim to grow OMIL to generate new sustainable income, and lay foundations for us to support clients for many generations to come.”
Cliff Hampton, Opportunity International UK Chair says,
“We are highly blessed to have two strong women leaders who have already shown that they are able to deliver on our ambitions and lead us into our next strategy period. We hope that these changes will build on what has already been… achieved and set us on the right path for increased income and impact, benefitting our current and future clients.”
Changes will take place from 1 February 2025.