Mourning the Loss of Senator Robert Bennett

Washington, DC, May 5, 2016 — Today RESULTS remembers Senator Robert Bennett, a champion for microfinance for the very poor, a former RESULTS board member, and a longtime friend of the organization.

“Senator Bennett once said that one of the three accomplishments in the Senate for which he was most proud was making microfinance — small loans to poor women to start their own businesses — a priority in our foreign aid,” said Scott Leckman, M.D., F.A.C.S, Chair of RESULTS and RESULTS Educational Fund Board of Directors. “Thanks to his successful efforts, millions of poor families around the world are better off.”

Throughout his time on the State and Foreign Operations Subcommittee of the Senate Appropriations Committee, he championed U.S. funding for microfinance programs around the world. He personally helped ensure the World Bank extended financial services to the very poor, and he was a leader in the successful effort to award the Congressional Gold Medal to microfinance pioneer Professor Muhammad Yunus.

“With Senator Bennett’s leadership, U.S. funding for microfinance more than doubled, providing access to critical financial services for millions of women living in dire poverty,” said Dr. Joanne Carter, Executive Director of RESULTS and RESULTS Educational Fund. “During his time on and off Capitol Hill, Senator Bennett was a friend and supporter of our volunteers in Utah and across the country.”

Senator Bennett started meeting with RESULTS volunteers even before his first day in office in 1993. He eventually also served on the RESULTS and RESULTS Educational Fund Board of Directors from 2012 to 2014.

“I am grateful for his friendship, his wise counsel, and his service to RESULTS and to our volunteers,” said Leckman. “I will miss him. Utah will miss him. The nation will miss him.”

Read Celebrating a Microfinance Champion, the story of Senator Bennett’s work on microfinance and his relationship with RESULTS.

About RESULTS and RESULTS Educational Fund:

RESULTS and RESULTS Educational Fund are sister organizations that, together, are a leading force in ending poverty in the United States and around the world. We create long-term solutions to poverty by supporting programs that address its root causes — lack of access to health, education, or opportunity to move up the economic ladder. We empower ordinary people to become extraordinary voices for the end of poverty in their communities, the media, and the halls of government. The collective voices of these passionate grassroots activists leverage millions of dollars for programs and improved policies that give low-income people the tools they need to move out of poverty.

Media Contact:

Colin Smith
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+1 202.783.4800 x139