According to this news article, socially responsible investors are choosing to invest in microfinance to help alleviate poverty. By means of often very small loans, financial services, and technology, microfinance helps the poor, often women, to start self-sustaining businesses in order to escape poverty. In order to help microfinance institutions measure and manage the social progress of their clients, the Grameen Foundation have commissioned the development of the Progress out of Poverty Index (PPI). The overall objective is to help microfinance institutions be more effective at poverty alleviation.

Source: