Trickle Up helps very poor people make their way out of poverty. We provide business training, seed capital grants and support to help people launch a microenterprise. 

Trickle Up offers grants, not loans, to entrepreneurs because we are committed to working with the extreme poor — people living on less than $1 a day who are unable to obtain a microloan. 

We focus our support on women. The majority report that, once they have launched their businesses, they are able to provide better nutrition, health care and education for their families.  We also focus on providing support to people with disabilities.

We start or expand more than 10,000 businesses every year. That’s because when it comes to fighting extreme poverty, launching these microenterprises works. 

HOW WE DO IT

Trickle Up identifies potential entrepreneurs with help from local organizations that are active in the regions in which we work. We currently have more than 80 such partners, as well as Trickle Up field offices in Asia, East Africa, and West Africa.

Once we have identified an entrepreneur, we work with our local partners to provide them with business training and seed capital of about $100 to start a business. We also help entrepreneurs connect with savings and loan groups. This three-part approach ensures that our seed capital grants are judiciously implemented. It also helps entrepreneurs best realize their potential as independent and capable small-business owners, which leads to self-empowerment. 

Working with the poor to create a business plan, provide training, and seed capital

Trickle Up trains our partners to help entrepreneurs devise feasible business plans.  The Trickle Up business plan addresses the same concepts that any business plan would address: What is the product or service? Is there demand? What are the costs and projected profits? Our partners work with the entrepreneurs to complete these plans while training them to perform related business functions.

The majority of people with whom we work cannot read or write, so we tailor this process to meet their needs. Some plans, for instance, use pictures to convey marketing and business concepts. We have helped to complete plans in more than 30 languages.

After business planning and training, we release the first half of the grant. This money covers launch costs. That might mean paying to rent space for a restaurant, like it did for Jogendra Prasad. Or it might buy a table, chair, and parasol for an entrepreneur like Talam Maiga, who set up a food stand in a local market. 

We also teach entrepreneurs how to balance accounts, reinvest profits in their businesses. And they learn how to run a successful enterprise in overwhelming numbers: after the first year, about 90 percent of businesses continue functioning, while over 80 percent of them expand.

Assessing the business to ensure success
After three months we assess the business. Is it growing? Is it going to succeed? Is the entrepreneur managing it properly? To find out, our New York-based staff makes frequent site visits. Doing so gives them a chance to speak directly with entrepreneurs. We are also in frequent contact with our partner organizations — by fax, phone, and email — to monitor entrepreneurs' development. In these ways, we can see if businesses are burgeoning. If so, our partners release the second installment of the grant.

This second influx of capital allows entrepreneurs to grow their businesses further. One entrepreneur, for instance, bought a second sewing machine so her grandmother could help with her sewing business. Knowledge gained from three months in operation gives entrepreneurs a good sense of what purchases might be best.

Linking the entrepreneur to savings groups and ongoing support
A vital piece of our program is savings and loan groups. We set up group savings organizations to encourage entrepreneurs to sack away money for the future. Some entrepreneurs turn to savings in the case of a medical emergency. Others may draw on these funds to expand their business, pay for a wedding, or buy safer, more suitable homes.

No matter what, having savings means that families — who previously lived hand-to-mouth — are better prepared for whatever life hands them. Food, homes, confidence: this is microfinance in action.

We also continue to work with our partners to provide entrepreneurs with additional business support services. This includes links to ongoing sources of capital, like microcredit. In this way, Trickle Up functions as the first step out of extreme poverty – and the first stop on the microfinance continuum.