Trickle Up works in Africa, Asia and Central America, reaching people who live on less than $1.25 a day. We work closely with local partner agencies to implement our model in order to provide the very poorest people with the right resources to help them start a microenterprise to improve their families’ quality of life.

We focus in particular on reaching women, who comprise the majority of the world’s poorest, yet are critical to breaking the cycle of poverty. Women are more likely than men to reinvest their profits in their families. In fact, for every microenterprise that Trickle Up helps start or expand, an average of 5.5 people benefit. That means that when we help 10,000 participants every year, more than 55,000 people are able to get started on their journey out of poverty.

 

OUR MISSION

Trickle Up empowers people living on less than $1.25 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.

 

STRATEGIC PLAN

Trickle Up recently completed a five-year plan to double the number of people we serve by 2012 and enhance the programs we offer to very poor people. 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.

When the Leets traveled to one of the Caribbean’s poorest nations, Dominica, they recognized what other poverty alleviation programs were missing: that even the world’s lowest income people have entrepreneurial potential.  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 model they created was simple, but effective. 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, and the results have proven to be effective and durable.

More than 30 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.