The Microcredit Summit Campaign was founded by Muhammad Yunus, Sam Daley-Harris, and John Hatch on a principle that emphasized a citizen-led approach of establishing and meeting a collective global goal.

The Campaign represents more than a single organization and is a social movement that aims to advance the microfinance field and foster a productive learning community.

[5]One of the best forums for fruitful conversations among many types of microcredit practitioners from around the world.By December 31, 2010, the Campaign counted more than 3,600 microfinance institutions that reported reaching more than 205 million clients with a current loan.

Of these institutions in the developing world, 1,009 are in Sub-Saharan African, 1,746 are in Asia and the Pacific, 647 are in Latin America and the Caribbean with the remainder (250) in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) and the industrialized regions of (1) North America and Western Europe and (2) Eastern Europe and Central Asia.

The process of identifying access to microfinance consists of (1) the circulation of Institutional Action Plans (IAPs) to thousands of practitioners with a request for submission of their most recent data; (2) a phone campaign to hundreds of the largest MFIs in the world to encourage submission; (3) a verification process seeking third-party corroboration of the data submitted by the largest MFIs; (4) data compilation and analysis; and (5) the writing of the report.