Established in 1979,  Trickle Up is a nonprofit international development organization that empowers people living on less than $1.25 a day to take their first steps out of poverty by providing them with resources to build microenterprises for a better quality of life.

Trickle Up is unique among microfinance agencies in that it provides seed capital grants for microenterprises as opposed to loans. Trickle up also helps create sustainable economic empowerment by providing microenterprise training and helping participants connect with savings and loan groups.

Focusing particularly on reaching women, who comprise 70% of the world's poorest, and people with disabilities, who comprise 20% of the world's poorest, yet are critical to breaking the cycle of poverty, Trickle Up currently works in five countries: India, Mali, Burkina Faso, Guatemala, and Nicaragua.

 


The Trickle Up Model 

Trickle Up's microenterprise development program is specifically designed to reach the extreme poor, people living on less than $1.25 a day, and provide them with the appropriate support and services needed to address their unique challenges. With a special focus on women and people with disabilities, we help extremely poor people take their first steps out of poverty. Our program components are designed and sequenced in a way that takes into account the individual, as well as the varying local contexts of the areas we work in. We specifically target people who are unreached by microfinance or other service organizations, and provide them with the resources they need to build a sustainable livelihood that improves their quality of life. For the women we serve, it is often the first time they have had such an opportunity.

Trickle Up works in partnership with community-based organizations to select the very poorest people in a community and provide three basic inputs:

SPARK GRANTS: Participants receive a seed capital grant that covers start-up costs or helps to expand an existing microenterprise. 

SAVINGS GROUPS: We connect participants with savings groups that help them build their assets. These groups function like community banks; the members save money, make loans, and pay each other interest to grow the group fund. 

TRAINING: Participants receive training on how to operate and sustain a microenterprise. Training may involve balancing accounts, basic marketing, livestock management, and animal rearing.