About Us
Jason Friedman, Principal. For nearly thirty years, Jason has worked to build sustainable nonprofit organizations that create jobs and small businesses in emerging markets. He is a nationally known for his expertise in helping microenterprise development, CDCs, and community development financial institutions (CDFIs) to increase effectiveness, performance and sustainability. He has worked with hundreds of organization to help them reach new levels of growth; develop new products and services; provide board training and strategic planning, and increase sustainability through broad-based fund development strategies.
Jason has served as Director of a statewide CDFI in Iowa that received the 1999 Presidential Award for Excellence in Microenterprise Development and led the creation of two-large scale Individual Development Account (IDA) programs. At the national level, he was Director of Training and Education for the Association for Enterprise Opportunity (AEO), where led a national project to create performance standards for the microenterprise industry, and authored several manuals on designing a high performance program.
Recent accomplishments include developing a microenterprise development program for the state of Iowa; co-leading several organizational capacity-building projects for microenterprise development organizations funded by the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA); staffing the Aspen Institute's Scale Academy for Microenterprise Development for AEO; and co-authoring a major study of micro and small business finance for the City of New York. He has served as advisor to the Northwest Area Foundation on the role of green collar jobs and businesses as a poverty alleviation strategy.
From 1987-1994, Jason was an economic development advisor for New York Governor Mario M. Cuomo.
Melanie D. Friedman, Principal. Melanie specializes in the development and execution of fundraising programs for non-profits and community and political campaigns. Melanie is working with our clients to develop staff capacity and systems for broad-based fund development. Melanie has experience in managing fundraising campaigns for non-profit organizations and elected officials at the local, state and national levels. After founding and serving as Executive Director of the Iowa Children's Museum and serving on several Boards herself, Melanie has worked and consulted with non-profits across the country, developing expertise in non-profit executive management, governance and Board development.
Amelia Lobo, Associate. Amelia is one of the nation's premier microfinance experts. Until December 2008, she was the Senior Underwriter at ACCION USA (formerly ACCION New York), one of the nation's largest microlenders. As Senior Underwriter, she managed loan production, created and revised product guidelines, conducted portfolio and industry analysis, and trained loan officers and underwriters. She is currently helping microlenders and CDFI assess and strengthen their microloan programs and develop new products to increase scale and tap new markets. Prior to working for ACCION, Amelia worked in the insurance industry, where she specialized in complex professional liability coverage for large financial institutions. She obtained a BA in Economics with a concentration in Gender and Women's Studies from Grinnell College in Grinnell, Iowa and an MBA with concentration in Economics of the Firm from INCAE, Latin America's leading business school.
Marian Doub, Associate. Marian is nationally respected for her expertise in building high-integrity integrated systems for measuring success and promoting best practices. Marian's reputation is based on her visionary work with dozens of practitioner and intermediary agencies in the microenterprise and community-based economic development field. Marian comes to Friedman Associates with nearly twenty years of practical experience adapting participatory research and evaluation methods to build the internal capacity of community-based nonprofits and their supporters to have the knowledge and tools needed to succeed. Based in San Francisco, CA, she has served as the Research and Evaluation Manager for Women's Initiative for Self-Employment. Marian has a Master's Degree in Urban and Environmental Policy (with an emphasis on gender and power as well as monprofit administration) from Tufts University, and over thirty years of community building and activism.