WPPI’s CHOSEN OUTREACH PARTNER ~ GIVE THE GIFT OF OPPORTUNITY… HELP CHANGE THE WORLD!!!
WOMEN OF PASSIONATE PURPOSE INTERNATIONAL ~WPPI is dedicated to supporting Women’s Opportunity International ~ WON. We have chosen to tithe to this beautiful and sacred organization.
Motivated by Christ’s call to serve the poor, Opportunity International is dedicated to providing opportunities for people in chronic poverty to transform their lives.
When clients build businesses with Opportunity International micro-loans, they often set into motion monumental changes!
Family income rises. Children are well fed and go to school. Homes are improved. Women gain status. For clients around the globe, these transformations take place every day – beginning with loans as small as $60.
To find out more about partnering with OptINnow.org visit their website…
WON ~ WOMEN’S OPPORTUNITY NETWORKThe Women’s Opportunity Network (WON) is a powerful network of women supporters and staff committed to helping Opportunity International end global poverty faster. The mission of WON is to invest in the lives of women around the world, giving them access to financial services and training that transform their lives, their children’s lives and their communities. WON is committed to unleashing the potential of women around the world to make a difference –as leaders, clients, donors, supporters and mentors.
Are you interested in empowering women, helping small entrepreneurs in developing countries, and making a difference in the fight against poverty? There are many ways you can help:
•Join the Women’s Opportunity Network.
•Help build our Global Opportunity Quilt – and help a woman build a better life for her family. Explore the quilt. Buy a patch. Be part of a beautiful solution to help end global poverty faster.
•Add a sentence to your e-mail messages or personal home page that links to Opportunity’s Web site.
Example: See how a small business loan of $50 can make a difference in the life of a poor woman and her family. Visit my favorite nonprofit’s Web site: http://www.opportunity.org
•Host a gathering in your home to introduce friends to Opportunity’s work, or offer to speak at a church or community forum. We can provide a PowerPoint presentation, literature and a video to assist you.
•Share a copy of the Impact newsletter with friends.
•Host international visitors from Opportunity in your home.
•Add your name to our list of volunteers who help with special projects.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS REGARDING WON – WOMEN’S OPPORTUNITY NETWORK – Which is a division of OPPORTUNITY INTERNATIONAL
HOW DOES IT WORK?It’s easy. We pool the generosity of people like you to provide entrepreneurs in the poorest parts of the world with small loans. The loans help these hardworking but impoverished individuals build retail, manufacturing, farming, or other businesses. If you’ve heard of microfinance, that’s what this is: small loans that can have a very big (and lasting) impact in the life of entrepreneurs, their family, and their community.
WHAT HAPPENS AFTER I GIVE?
When you give through OptINnow and Opportunity International, you’re not giving to a funding aggregator, but an actual microfinance provider – one that’s been serving people around the world for over thirty years. The clients you see on the site are our clients being served by our locations.
Because of that, through OptINnow you are able to fund loans within the actual loan cycle. The entrepreneurs featured on our site are active loan clients. While most will have already received their loan disbursement (given their circumstances, it would be unconscionable to make them wait), almost all of them are still within their 16-week loan cycle.
While in that cycle, they are receiving counsel and coaching through our loan officers, making payments (and often deposits) in our branches or kiosks and sometimes leading or participating in Trust Groups with other Opportunity clients.
Once the loan is repaid, your gift funds another loan and another, all within that same community, helping to create jobs and lay the foundation for a vibrant, local economy.
WHY DO POOR ENTREPRENEURS NEED PEOPLE LIKE ME TO FUND LOANS? WHY DON’T THEY GO TO A TYPICAL BANK?
The world of finance isn’t kind (and is often nonexistent) to those living in poverty. Most poor entrepreneurs, while struggling to build a business, don’t have access to credit or financial services. Some don’t have the means necessary to get started, and for many, many more, they simply have no place to go other than a loan shark. The financial infrastructure we take for granted in the U.S. sadly doesn’t exist for the hardworking poor in developing countries. That’s why your loans, and the supporting infrastructure of 45 banks and financial institutions we partner with, are so vital. These institutions exist for one reason only: to provide the working poor with the opportunity they need to transform their lives and break the cycle of poverty. These are their banks. Built to offer opportunity, to protect them from those that might take advantage of their vulnerability, and to provide them dignity and prosperity. Together we can build many more. And we can do it faster.
ARE YOU A “FOR PROFIT” ORGANIZATION?
No. OptINnow™ is funded and managed by Opportunity International, a non-profit organization. OptINnow is simply a means by which individual and group donations can reach poor entrepreneurs faster, and easier. Opportunity International currently serves over 1.2 million entrepreneurs worldwide, and has microfinance organizations in 28 countries.
ARE YOU A CHRISTIAN ORGANIZATION?
Yes, we are a Christian organization inspired by Jesus Christ’s call to serve the poor. This foundation enables us to recognize the importance of social and spiritual transformation in addition to economic transformation. We do not select entrepreneurs based on their faith, but actively seek to help all people regardless of gender, creed, ethnicity, marital status, or other consideration. We serve men and women of all faiths or no faith to join us in the important work of eliminating poverty around the world.
HOW MUCH OF MY DONATION GOES TO ADMINISTRATIVE COSTS?
In our 2007 audited financial results, we raised $61.2 million in revenue via donations, and another $72 million in equity and debt; totaling $133 million raised for deserving entrepreneurs. Fundraising and administrative expenses were 17% of revenue, but only 8% of the total funds that were raised for entrepreneurs. We are fortunate to have received major grants in the past year from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and foundations for Nike, Caterpillar, John Deere, UPS and Lenovo corporations.
DOES OPPORTUNITY INTERNATIONAL CHARGE INTEREST ON THE LOANS?
Yes. Here’s why: In addition to offsetting costs (and countering inflation), collecting interest allows us to provide vital business training and mentoring services. For us these services are break-even expenses, but for those entrepreneurs we help, they are a blessing. They provide the vital tools that entrepreneurs need to work their way out of poverty once and for all. These services are a “hand up” and not a “hand out.” Rates vary by country and bank, and are almost always significantly lower than interest rates available to the poor by other means.
IF I FUND A LOAN WILL I GET TO HEAR ABOUT HOW THE BUSINESS IS DOING?
Yes. You’ll receive email updates on how the business is doing and watch as lives are transformed.
WHAT HAPPENS TO MY DONATION WHEN IT’S REPAID TO OptInNow?
It gets recycled to another entrepreneur. Imagine, your original donation being paid back and then going to work to fund another loan. You’re improving not only the lives of your original recipient and their family, but also the lives of the next, and the next, and the next; thus the impact within the community is compounded.
WHAT IS THE LIKELIHOOD THAT THE RECIPIANT WILL PAY BACK THE LOAN?
More than 98% of all loans are paid back. Beyond carefully choosing entrepreneurs, there are lots of reasons for this. One of the biggest is the formation of “Trust Groups” – a group of roughly 15 to 40 poor entrepreneurs, most often women, who come together weekly to receive business training from a loan officer. As a group they not only learn together and support each other, but they also guarantee each others loans. Trust Groups have proven to be an important part of an entrepreneur’s success.
HOW DOES MY DONATION HELP BUILD A SCHOOL OR AN ENTIRE COMMUNITY?
Many of our entrepreneurs operate private schools for the poor, which out perform their public school counterparts across the developing world. In Ghana, we operate 51 Microschools of Opportunity™ , a pilot program that will be expanded into other Latin America, Africa and Asian countries in the coming years. Entire communities benefit when a Trust Group is formed. These entrepreneurs build their businesses, expand and many become community leaders, contributing to community projects like providing fresh water, and building larger scale businesses to increase employment in their villages.
HOW DO YOU CHOOSE WHICH ENTREPRENUERS TO PUT ON THE SITE?
All entrepreneurs have been screened and approved for a loan by an Opportunity International partner and loan officer. You’ll notice that often women are selected. Why? Two reasons: they have the most difficult time receiving credit by other means. And secondly, the income their businesses bring in is most often shared with children and extended family, thereby having greater impact.
WHY IS IT MOST IMPORTANT TO IMPROVE THE LIVES AND WORK WITH WOMEN?
Unfortunately, the current burden of poverty rests primarily on the backs of women. That is why 85% of our clients are women. A staggering 70% of all those living in extreme poverty are female. Women are often excluded from education and the workplace, from owning property, and from equal participation in politics. They produce one half of the world’s food, but own just one percent of its farmland. But there is good news: through microfinance, women are changing the world. Because when women improve their circumstances, they also improve the circumstances of their children. Women put family first, investing in nutrition and education, and thus investing in a future for their children. There is no more important work in the world than helping women go from hopeless and head down, to empowered and standing tall. Dignity comes from opportunity. And opportunity comes from us. All of us.
ARE ENTREPRENEURS PROVIDE WITH HELP OTHER THAN THE LOAN?
Yes. Entrepreneurs receive weekly business training (facilitated by a loan officer), in addition to advice and support. Many loan officers also go above and beyond, bringing in outside experts to provide education in areas such as HIV/AIDS, child development and more.
CAN IS SEE WHICH ENTREPRENEUR RECEIVES MY DONATION NEXT?
We wish that were possible. Operationally that would be prohibitively expensive. Why? Because the process of receiving payments and re-loaning the money is ongoing, which means every donation touches multiple people at different points along the way. You can be assured that our partners follow the same standards for entrepreneur selection, loaning, and payments for the next recipients.
CAN I STAY INVOLVED IN FUNDING ANOTHER LOAN?
Yes. The need is great. More than 2.8 billion people worldwide live on less than two dollars a day. To end global poverty, and do it faster, we need your continued and generous support. And please, tell others about us. We don’t want to be “just another charity.” That’s why we do things differently. That’s why we recycle and grow every donation received. Help another entrepreneur and follow their journey out of poverty.
IS MY DONATION TAX-DEDUCTIBLE?
Yes. Opportunity International is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. Donations are tax-deductible to the extent provided by law.
BE A WORLD CHANGER! LIVE AS GOD CALLS YOU TO LIVE… JOIN WOMEN OF PASSIONATE PURPOSE INTERNATIONAL AS WE LIVE OUT JESUS’ CALL TO SERVE THE POOR… WE ARE ON THE JOURNEY WITH YOU!
KEEP IN TOUCH WITH US!
