Money donated to Grameen America is repeatedly lent and repaid, so each $1 donated results in roughly $12 lent to people over 10 years.
Mostly true True in substance, wrong in a detail.
Factual: Statements about the present or the past, checked against the record: did they hold up?
The second judge would not resolve this claim; the verdict shown is the first judge's.
The evidence is the person's or their organisation's own records.
What would count as true or false
The claim is that money donated to Grameen America is lent, repaid and lent again, so that each $1 donated results in about $12 lent over 10 years. Judge it as of 2019-03-08 against Grameen America's published materials and financials (annual reports, Form 990s, statements of the loan recycling multiplier) and independent coverage. True: Grameen America runs a revolving microloan fund with high repayment, and its published figures support roughly $10–14 lent per $1 donated over about 10 years. Mostly true: the recycling mechanism holds and the stated multiplier differs modestly (for example $8–$15) or covers a slightly different period. Mixed: the funds do revolve, but the multiplier is unsupported or substantially different (for example about $3–5), or the loans are mainly funded by debt rather than recycled donations. Mostly false: donations mostly fund operating costs rather than revolving loan capital, so the recycling claim overstates things. False: Grameen America does not recycle donated money into repeated loans.
Set before the research began.
Evidence (3)
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E1 [PDF] AN EQUITABLE PATH FORWARD - Youth For SDG Grameen America 2021 Annual Report (PDF hosted on youthforsdg.org) · 2021
“As part of our unique social capital model, interest income is repaid to cover 100% of our operating costs. Every $1 loaned out is repaid and redeployed 12 times over five years to deepen our impact in communities across the country.”
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E2 Podcast 95: Andrea Jung of Grameen America — Future Nexus Future Nexus (Lend Academy podcast) · 24 March 2017
“the funding really helps us launch and cover operating expenses and portfolio for the first five years of the program and that is a combination of major foundations, major financial institutions and major family foundations and individual donors.”
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E3 [PDF] Consolidated Financial Statements and Report of Independent ... Grameen America, Inc. (audited by Grant Thornton LLP) · 17 August 2026
“In 2024 and 2023, the Organization’s interest earned from its microloan portfolio exceeded its operating expenses.”
Reasoning
Grameen America's 2021 annual report [E1] describes a revolving model in which interest income covers operating costs and each $1 loaned out is repaid and redeployed 12 times over five years. That supports the recycling mechanism and a multiplier of about 12, though it counts per dollar loaned over five years, not per dollar donated over ten. The audited 2024 statements [E3] confirm that interest income exceeded operating expenses. CEO Andrea Jung's comment in [E2] shows that early donor money also paid for operating expenses in each program's first five years, so not every donated dollar became loan capital. The annual report and audited statements (E1, E3) date from after 2019, though the 2017 interview (E2) predates the claim, so the verdict is mostly true rather than true.
Cite this claim
Ray Dalio, “Money donated to Grameen America is repeatedly lent and repaid, so each $1 donated results in roughly $12 lent to people over 10 years.” (said 8 March 2019). Verdict: mostly true. Reliability API, claim c_330fa551fe30, method 0.1.0+c876030c, dataset release v1.1.2. https://epistacklabs.com/claims/c_330fa551fe30
This claim is in dataset release v1.1.2, with the same verdict.
Reply to this claim
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