MEDELLIN, Colombia--(BUSINESS WIRE)--In support of its Global Fellows program, an international volunteer program that lends team members’ professional expertise to nonprofits around the world, Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC) announced a $10,000 grant toGrameen Foundation’s Bankers without Borders. The company announced the donation during a customer appreciation event at the 48thAnnual FELABAN Assembly in Medellin. Bankers without Borders will use the grant to sponsor pro bono consulting projects at the following nonprofit organizations in Colombia, Ecuador and Mexico:

“The Wells Fargo team members serving as Global Fellows are applying their professional skills and expertise to help Grameen Foundation advance the vital work of microfinance and poverty-focused organizations”

• Pro Mujer - Pro Mujer provides women in Mexico with access to financial services, education and training, and health care. As the only institution in Mexico that combines microfinance with women’s health and empowerment training, Pro Mujer helps to improve the lives of women and ignite greater social and economic opportunities for their families.
• The Trust for the Americas - The Trust for Americas helps underserved populations in Latin America and the Caribbean. The organization’s flagship program is POETA - the acronym for “Partnership in Opportunities for Employment through Technology in the Americas.” In Colombia, The Trust’s POETA program provides training in IT skills and job readiness tool for vulnerable populations, including people with disabilities, at-risk youth, and victims of conflict.
• VisionFund Ecuador - VisionFund Ecuador supports microenterprise owners who cannot obtain credit from the formal financial system due to a depressed economic situation and lack of credit and guarantees. The organization helps women from urban and rural areas who make a living from agricultural, artisanal, commercial, and service activities by providing credit, training, and advisory services.

“Wells Fargo is committed to supporting the communities in which we live and work around the world,” said Ron Caton, head of Wells Fargo Global Financial Institution (GFI) business in Latin America, Canada and Caribbean. “Through our partnership with Bankers without Borders, we are proud to support these three organizations and the outstanding work they are doing in their local communities.”

Earlier this year, Wells Fargo expanded its Global Fellows program by joining forces with Grameen Foundation’s Bankers without Borders to support key poverty-focused organizations. The program is beginning its first volunteer program in Colombia where Wells Fargo team members are partnering with Grameen Foundation’s Latin American regional office in Medellin. Together, they are working to encourage wider adoption of mobile-enabled tools to help small-scale farmers increase productivity, get access to needed certifications and adopt agriculture best practices.

“The Wells Fargo team members serving as Global Fellows are applying their professional skills and expertise to help Grameen Foundation advance the vital work of microfinance and poverty-focused organizations,” said Alejandro Hernandez, head of international social responsibility for Wells Fargo. “We are proud to collaborate with Grameen Foundation in Colombia and look forward to working together as we continue to help more organizations in communities throughout Latin America and around the world.”

About Wells Fargo

Through its GFI business, part of the company’s International Group, Wells Fargo provides trade, payments, deposits, credit, and other banking solutions to financial institution customers across the region. Ranked #1 global financial institution throughout Latin America1, Wells Fargo’s International Group operates from 36 countries, including branches in the Cayman Islands, Dubai International Financial Center (DIFC), Hong Kong, London, Seoul, Shanghai, Singapore, Taipei, Tokyo and Toronto.

Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC) is a nationwide, diversified, community-based financial services company with $1.6 trillion in assets. Founded in 1852 and headquartered in San Francisco, Wells Fargo provides banking, insurance, investments, mortgage, and consumer and commercial finance through more than 8,700 locations, 12,500 ATMs, and the internet (wellsfargo.com), and has offices in 36 countries to support customers who conduct business in the global economy. With approximately 265,000 team members, Wells Fargo serves one in three households in the United States. Wells Fargo & Company was ranked No. 29 on Fortune’s 2014 rankings of America’s largest corporations. Wells Fargo’s vision is to satisfy all our customers’ financial needs and help them succeed financially. Wells Fargo perspectives are also available at Wells Fargo Blogs and Wells Fargo Stories.

About Bankers without Borders®

Established in 2008, Bankers without Borders, Grameen Foundation’s skills-based volunteer initiative, is on a mission to end abject poverty around the world by powering a global "skillanthropy" movement. Bankers without Borders harnesses the skills and services of the world’s brightest minds and institutions to accelerate the progress of social entrepreneurs dedicated to connecting the poor to their potential. Bankers without Borders offers pro bono consulting, employee engagement opportunities, fellowship and internship programs, and volunteer management services. Visit our website at www.bankerswithoutborders.com or follow us on Twitter @GrameenBwB.

About Grameen Foundation

Grameen Foundation is a global nonprofit organization that helps the world's poorest people achieve their full potential by providing access to essential financial services and information on health and agriculture that can transform their lives. Founded in 1997, it delivers solutions that respond to the needs of the poor, as well as tools that help poverty-focused organizations become more effective. It focuses on initiatives that can achieve widespread impact and uses an open-source approach that makes it easy for other organizations to adopt them broadly. Nobel Laureate Dr. Muhammad Yunus, founder of Grameen Bank and the Grameen family of companies, is an inaugural member of its Board of Directors, and now serves as director emeritus. Grameen Foundation is headquartered in Washington, D.C., with offices in the U.S., Asia, Africa and Latin America and the Caribbean. For more information, please visit www.grameenfoundation.org or follow us on Twitter@GrameenFdn.