What is Oikocredit?
{{Infobox institute | name = Oikocredit | image = Oikocredit ENG PMS.svg | image_size = | image_upright = | image_alt = | caption = | latin_name = | other_name = | motto = investing in people | mottoeng = | parent = | founder = World Council of Churches (WCC) | established = 1975 | mission = | focus = providing capital for social and ecological projects, primarily in developing countries | president = | chairman = Mirjam 't Lam | head_label = | head = | faculty = | adjunct_faculty = | staff = 250 | key_people = | budget = | endowment = | debt = | num_members = | subsidiaries = | owner = | slogan = | former_name = | address = https://www.oikocredit.coop/ | location = | city = Amersfoort | state = Netherlands | province = | country = | coordinates = <!-- or |coor= --> | website = | dissolved = | footnotes = }} Oikocredit is an internationally operating [[cooperative]] under Dutch law (U.A.). Its headquarters is in [[Amersfoort]]. It makes [[Social Investment|social investments]], which means it gives [[money]] for projects that help [[society]] and the [[environment]], especially in [[Developing country|developing countries]].The institution does not have a banking license. It finances itself through the deposits and investments of its members and external investors who provide capital as ethical investments. == History == Oikocredit was founded in 1975 on the initiative of the World Council of Churches under the name Ecumenical Development Cooperative Society (EDCS). The goal was to mobilize church reserves for development promotion. The basic approach of linking development promotion with loans and valuable investments initially met with skepticism from church financial and development experts. Initially, some people did not feel comfortable giving loans to disadvantaged people instead of donations. Others disagreed with investing the church's money in something believed to be unlikely to work and yield no financial [[profit]]. However, many people from churches throughout Europe be