Trickle Up empowers people living on less than a dollar a day to take the first steps out of poverty, providing them with resources to build microenterprises for a better quality of life. In partnership with local agencies, we provide business training and seed capital to launch or expand a microenterprise, and savings support to build assets.

Trickle Up believes in people and their capacity to make a difference. We empower the world's poorest people to develop their potential and strengthen their communities. We pursue this goal in a way that encourages innovation and leadership, maximizes resources, and promotes communication and cooperation among all Trickle Up constituencies.

Click here to view our 2007-2012 Strategic Plan.

 

HISTORY

Trickle down economics was a political selling point in 1979 and Glen and Mildred Robbins Leet weren’t buying it.  Frustrated that huge sums of money allocated to top levels of society never reached the world’s poorest, the Leets decided to reverse the equation — from the bottom-up.  In 1979, the Leets founded Trickle Up as an empowering response to global poverty.

Trickle Up outreach began when the founders traveled to one of the Caribbean’s poorest nations, Dominica.  The Leets recognized what other poverty alleviation programs were missing: that even the world’s lowest income people have entrepreneurial potential.  The model they created was simple, but effective.
 
With the assistance of local agencies and $1000 of their own money, Glen and Mildred gave ten people grants of $100 to launch their own microenterprises. The Leets provided them with Trickle Up business plans and reports to track business expenses and earnings.  New business activities ranged from building blocks to selling eggs, jams, and school uniforms.  Some of those businesses are still operating today!  Results were overwhelmingly positive in terms of quality of life improvements for our entrepreneurs.  Like this, the Trickle Up program was born.
 
Twenty-eight years later, Trickle Up is a still critical vehicle for poor people's social and financial empowerment.  Trickle Up has helped start or expand over 150,000 businesses as a way out of poverty, which has benefited the lives of over half a million people.