Microcredit is the extension of very small loans (microloans) to impoverished borrowers who typically lack collateral, steady employment, or a verifiable credit history. It is designed to support entrepreneurship and alleviate poverty. Many recipients are illiterate, and therefore unable to complete paperwork required to get conventional loans. As of 2009 an estimated 74 million people held microloans that totaled US$38 billion. Grameen Bank reports that repayment success rates are between 95 and 98 percent.
Mercy Corps is a global non-governmental, humanitarian aid organization operating in transitional contexts that have undergone, or have been undergoing, various forms of economic, environmental, social and political instabilities. The organization claims to have assisted more than 220 million people survive humanitarian conflicts, seek improvements in livelihoods, and deliver durable development to their communities.
A social enterprise is an organization that applies commercial strategies to maximize improvements in financial, social and environmental well-being. This may include maximizing social impact alongside profits for co-owners.
A micro-enterprise is generally defined as a small business employing nine people or fewer, and having a balance sheet or turnover less than a certain amount. The terms microenterprise and microbusiness have the same meaning, though traditionally when referring to a small business financed by microcredit the term microenterprise is often used. Similarly, when referring to a small, usually legal business that is not financed by microcredit, the term microbusiness is often used. Internationally, most microenterprises are family businesses employing one or two persons. Most microenterprise owners are primarily interested in earning a living to support themselves and their families. They only grow the business when something in their lives changes and they need to generate a larger income. According to information found on the Census.gov website, microenterprises make up 95% of the 28 million US companies tracked by the census.
The Marriott School of Business is the business school of Brigham Young University (BYU), a private university owned by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and located in Provo, Utah. It was founded in 1891 and renamed in 1988 after J. Willard Marriott, founder of Marriott International, and his wife Alice following their $15 million endowment gift to the school.
Raúl Diez Canseco Terry is a Peruvian economist, entrepreneur and politician. Currently, he is founder and president of San Ignacio de Loyola Educational Corporation and promoter of the solidarity campaign Respira Perú. Also, he was First Vice President of Peru (2001–2004) and Minister of Foreign Trade and Tourism of the government of Alejandro Toledo.
Acción Emprendedora (AE) is a non-profit organization founded in 2002 in Chile. The organization claims to seek the eradication of poverty by training and assisting poor small business owners and helping microentrepreneurs grow their businesses through education and mediating loan negotiations. Based in Santiago de Chile, it is present in seven major cities throughout Chile.
Youth Business China, abbreviated YBC, is a non-profit program in the People's Republic of China that aims to promote youth entrepreneurship. It is headquartered in Beijing.
Menlo F. Smith is a prominent St. Louis businessman. He has also been a leader in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints both in St. Louis and in the Philippines. He is also a benefactor of Brigham Young University and the founder of Enterprise Mentors International now known as Mentors, International.
Microfranchising is a business model that applies elements and concepts of traditional franchising to small businesses in the developing world. It refers to the systemization and replication of micro-enterprises. Microfranchising is broadly defined as small businesses that can easily be replicated by following proven marketing and operational concepts.
Ascend: A Humanitarian Alliance is a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization which focuses on international economic and health care development in Africa and South America. Headquarters are located in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States, with full-time offices in Ethiopia, Peru, Bolivia and Ecuador and affiliates in DR Congo, Cape Verde, Ghana, Mozambique, and Sudan. Ascend Alliance operates under the governance of a volunteer board of directors which is composed of business professionals, humanitarians and community leaders. A local group of donors, partners, volunteers, interns, and staff members contribute their time, resources and skills to further the organization's goals. Its leadership is affiliated with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Robert Christopher "Bob" Gay has been a general authority of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints since 2012. He has been a member of the church's Presidency of the Seventy since March 2018. Prior to becoming a general authority, Gay was the managing director, co-founder, and chief executive officer of Huntsman Gay Global Capital (HGGC), a private equity firm headquartered in Palo Alto, California, with offices in Florida, Massachusetts, and Utah.
Nuru International is a United States-based social venture created to help disadvantaged communities in rural areas of Kenya and Ethiopia. The ultimate aim of the program is to help local leaders end extreme poverty in their communities. Nuru is a Kiswahili word that means "light."
Jason Fairbourne is an American entrepreneur and social innovator. He is best known for founding greentech platform Yoodlize and developing the concept of microfranchising while teaching at Brigham Young University and running Fairbourne Consulting Group.
Warner P. Woodworth is a global social entrepreneur and professor emeritus in the Department of Management in the Marriott School of Business at Brigham Young University (BYU). He is a leading advocate of development of microcredit and has been involved in researching as well as developing such programs.
Landesa Rural Development Institute is a nonprofit organization that works with governments and local organizations to obtain legal land rights for poor families. Since 1967, Landesa has helped more than 180 million poor families in 50 countries gain legal control over their land.
The Sarhad Rural Support Programme (SRSP) is the largest non-governmental organization working to alleviate poverty in North West Pakistan. It was established in 1989 with the aim of reducing poverty and ensuring sustainable means of livelihood in what is now Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. SRSP is part of the Rural Support Programmes (RSP's) initiated by United Nations Environment Programme Global 500 Award winner Shoaib Sultan Khan. It is now the largest regional RSP, with extensive outreach into communities. In recent years because of its vast outreach, SRSP has had to play a prominent role in disasters that have hit Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. As a result, humanitarian work along with development has become a core competency of the organization.
The Uganda National Entrepreneurship Development Institute (UNEDI) is a privately owned national resource development institution in Uganda whose focus area is entrepreneurship education, training and research. The institute provides training techniques, faculty support, consultancy, research as well as teaching and development of entrepreneurship training materials.
Social entrepreneurship in South Asia involves business activities that have a social benefit, often for people at the bottom of the pyramid. It is an emerging area of entrepreneurship that is supported by both the public sector and the private sector.
Martín Burt Artaza is a Paraguayan social entrepreneur, author, former mayor of Asunción and former chief of staff to Paraguay's president, known for founding Fundación Paraguaya in 1985, a leading non-profit and micro-finance organization in Paraguay, and creator of the Poverty Stoplight, a poverty measurement tool and coaching methodology.
