Vol. 7, Issue 2, Part A (2025)

A shift of micro financing institutions from a non-profit to a “commercial” or “for profit” model has allowed the industry to grow and serve poor people. Financially sustainable institutions can create a great impact on financial inclusion. To address research questions, a systematic literature review has been done to present significant contributions with theoretical prepositions. Referred scholarly publications available on Google scholar have been considered for a time period of year ranging from 2000 to 2023. Keywords like sustainability, outreach, grant and donations and micro financing institutions were used. 120 research articles and papers have been considered for the purpose of study, out of which only 72 have been reviewed considering the relevancy to the area of study. The study indicates that a trade-off exists between outreach and financial sustainability, high dependence on donations leads to financial unsustainability.