CHAPTER 1 Guiding Principles for Saving for Change

After years of promoting savings groups, I have identified nine principles that explain why the number of savings groups has grown so quickly, how they have replicated organically, and why these groups survive in the face of economic and political crises, armed insurgencies, drought, and hyperinflation. These same principles could be applied to any development initiative attempting to reach not just hundreds but thousands—even millions—of people at minimum cost in a way that is robust enough to continue long after outside staffing and funding has ended.