Citi Aspen Intern Program
The Citi Aspen Intern Program was a 12-week summer internship program managed by MicroTest and funded by Citi that placed 63 graduate school students in thirty-six different U.S. microenterprise organizations from 2007-2009. The program exposed the interns to the microenterprise development field while helping organizations with the collection of high-quality client outcomes data. The program introduced the field to young talent that hopefully will stimulate interest in microenterprise development as a promising career.

Abilities Fund evaluation
FIELD was engaged in a two-year evaluation of an Abilities Fund initiative designed to raise awareness of the opportunities and resources available to people with disabilities who want to pursue self-employment. The initiative, funded by the U.S. Department of Labor, trained selected staff involved in vocational rehabilitation in how to help those with disabilities to start and grow businesses.

Taking Microenterprise in Michigan to the Next Level
Conducted in collaboration with the Corporation for a Skilled Workforce, this multiyear project explored ways to strengthen the infrastructure in Michigan that supports small business development, with a goal of helping integrate microenterprise development into state entrepreneurship and economic development strategies. As part of the data collection undertaken in the project, researchers used MicroTest Intermediary©. To read a summary of the goals and research approach for the first year of the study, click here. To read the first year findings report entitled, Making Every Business Count: Findings from a Study of Michigan's Microenterprise Field, click here. The second phase of work involved capacity-building for organizations serving Michigan's microenterprises.

Social Return on Investment (SROI)
From 2003-2005, MicroTest and FIELD: conducted research to understand existing SROI models and the need for a microenterprise-appropriate SROI; designed and tested a simple SROI calculation; and began conversations with a group of interested microenterprise programs about the possibility of developing a more in-depth SROI model.

Ms. Foundation Collaborative Fund for Women's Economic Development
FIELD has worked with the Ms. Foundation for Women's Collaborative Fund for Women's Economic Development (CFWED) to assess the program performance and client outcomes of 17 CFWED grantees engaged in either microenterprise or social-purpose businesses.

Microenterprise Data Collection Project
FIELD and the Association for Enterprise Opportunity collaborated to produce standardized, annual industry data used to periodically update the Directory of U.S. Microenterprise Programs.

Microenterprise Standards and Accreditation Project (MSAP)
MicroTest supports a national project managed by the Association for Enterprise Opportunity to establish standards and an accreditation process for the microenterprise industry.

The CDFI Data Project (CDP)
The CDP is a national project to develop a high-quality database on Community Development Financial Institutions, a role that FIELD and MicroTest staff are playing to ensure the inclusion of microenterprise financing in the CDP.