A Lifetime Commitment to Community Service
We, at The WebTool, feel very strongly about the organizations we support with our time, expertise and money. See how you can pitch in, too.
Acumen Fund uses philanthropic capital to make disciplined investments – loans or equity, not grants – that yield both financial and social returns. Any financial returns received are recycled into new investments. Acumen believes that pioneering entrepreneurs will ultimately find the solutions to poverty. The entrepreneurs Acumen Fund supports are focused on offering critical services – water, health, housing, and energy – at affordable prices to people earning less than four dollars a day.
Finca International (FINCA) provides financial services to the world’s poorest families so they can create their own jobs, raise household incomes, and improve their standard of living. Microfinance is the term most often used to describe financial services for poor people in developing countries. Microfinance includes microcredit or microloans (small amounts of money lent to poor people to finance self-employment activities or for other purposes).
Grameen America provides affordable micro-loans to financially empower low-income entrepreneurs. Grameen America was founded upon the belief that Grameen Bank, a system that has succeeded with remarkable results in the villages of Bangladesh, could work in urban America. In the US, there exists a huge population of underserved people who do not have access to banks and mainstream financial institutions. Grameen America has branches in NY, IN, NE and, with additional branches in development in California, North Carolina, Boston, and Washington, DC.
Heifer International works with communities to end hunger and poverty and to care for the earth. Heifer’s strategy is…to “pass on the gift.” As people share their animals’ offspring with others – along with their knowledge, resources, and skills – an expanding network of hope, dignity, and self-reliance is created that reaches around the globe. This simple idea of giving families a source of food rather than short-term relief caught on and has continued for almost 60 years. Today, millions of families in 128 countries have been given the gifts of self-reliance and hope.
Kiva is the world’s first person-to-person micro-lending website, empowering individuals to lend directly to entrepreneurs around the globe. When you browse entrepreneurs’ profiles on the site, choose someone to lend to, and then make a loan, you are helping a real person make great strides towards economic independence and improve life for themselves, their family, and their community. Throughout the course of the loan (usually 6-12 months), you can receive email journal updates and track repayments. Then, when you get your loan money back, you can relend to someone else in need.
United Nations Online Volunteering Service Volunteers from around the world can help organizations that serve communities in developing countries — without leaving their own communities. These online volunteers translate documents, write articles, research data, build web sites, mentor young people, design logos, and engage in many other projects to benefit organizations serving people in the developing world.
