Financing Women Entrepreneurs

January 18, 2011

The micro-lending Web site Kiva has brought together a high-profile group to promote novel approaches to engaging the public at large in micro-lending to women entrepreneurs in low-income regions of the United States and 56 other countries. Financial Independence Through Entrepreneurship (FITE), as the program is known, is a first-of-its-kind microfinance initiative in that it supports consumer access to microlending initiatives via online, offline and retail channels.

Kiva runs the underlying technology, and the international skin care brand Dermalogica is helping to underwrite the initiative. Other backers and participants include actress Geena Davis, New York Times columnist Nicholoas Kristof, women's clothier Eileen Fisher, Lifetime (the cable network), and consumer product brands like Seventh Generation and Dansko.

What sets this initiative apart from many others is the way it engages consumers. Dermalogica, for example, is contributing $1 in funding toward a micro-loan whenever a customer goes to the FITE Web site and enters a code printed on specially-themed packaging the company uses for five of its best-selling products. The money doesn't just go into a fund, but rather is made available "within hours" to a designated entrepreneur," the announcement said.

"By engaging customers, FITE can turn thousands of members of the public into micro-lenders," said Bennett Grassano, director of development at Kiva.org. "This creates a potential for substantial economic impacts in many places across the globe."

"We know the collective impact of consumer action and socially-responsible business practices can create a sustainable and far-reaching change," Davis said. "Together we can maximize our effort to empower women and girls around the world."

Additional details about the FITE micro-lending program are available online at joinFITE.org.

250 microfinance institutions made loans to Americans in 2007.