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Kiva (organization)
Kiva Microfunds is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization headquartered in San Francisco, California. Kiva's mission is "to expand financial access to help underserved communities thrive." Kiva distributes funds that it receives to microfinance institutions, social impact businesses, schools or non-profit organizations and does not generally directly provide funds to specific individuals. These organizations are charged fees by Kiva and borrowers pay interest on most loans. Kiva is supported by grants, loans, and donations from its users, corporations, and national institutions. Since 2005, Kiva has crowd-funded more than 1.6 million loans, totaling over $1.68 billion, with a repayment rate of 96.3 percent. Over 2 million lenders worldwide use the Kiva platform. Despite its size, independent review by GiveWell in 2009 failed to find evidence that the organization produces significant social benefit, with at least one partner supposedly vetted by Kiva earning high profits while h ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Premal Shah
Premal Shah (born 1975) is an Indian-American entrepreneur who co-founded Kiva.org, Kiva, a global poverty reduction, poverty alleviation non-profit that has raised over $2 billion for low-income entrepreneurs in eighty countries. Early life Shah was born in Ahmedabad, India, and raised in Minnesota, graduating from Irondale High School. He attended Stanford University, where he pursued his interest in economic development, with a specific focus on microfinance. At the London School of Economics he received a research grant to study the microfinance work of the Self-Employed Women's Association. Career Shah was an early employee of and principal product manager at PayPal. Building on his college interest in microfinance, Shah took a sabbatical from PayPal in 2004 to prototype a concept of person-to-person microlending in India. Upon his return to Silicon Valley in 2005, Shah joined Matt Flannery and Jessica Jackley in launching Kiva and scaling it into a global organization ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Village Enterprise
Village Enterprise is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that equips the most vulnerable populations living in extreme poverty in rural Africa to launch sustainable businesses and break the cycle of poverty. As of 2024, Village Enterprise has helped nearly 300,000 people living in extreme poverty in Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda, Ethiopia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Congo-Brazzaville, Mozambique, and Tanzania to become entrepreneurs, and 83% of these entrepreneurs are women. How it works The Village Enterprise poverty graduation model is a one-year graduation approach that targets households living below the international poverty line and provides: access to a savings group, business training, startup cash, and business mentoring. The startup cash provided is a seed capital grant ranging from US$180 to US$300 given to groups of three entrepreneurs who launch a business together. The positive impacts of the graduation approach and the rigorous evidence that supports it wer ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sheryl WuDunn
Sheryl WuDunn (born November 16, 1959) is an American business executive, writer, lecturer, and Pulitzer Prize winner. A senior banker focusing on growth companies in technology, new media and the emerging markets, WuDunn also works with double bottom line firms, alternative energy issues, and women entrepreneurs. She has also been a private wealth adviser with Goldman Sachs and was previously a journalist and business executive for ''The New York Times'', where she served as a foreign correspondent in the Beijing and Tokyo bureaus. Biography A third generation Chinese American, Sheryl WuDunn grew up in New York City on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. She attended Cornell University, graduating with a BA in European History in 1981. For three years, WuDunn worked for Bankers Trust Company as an international loan officer. After this, she earned her MBA from Harvard Business School and MPA from Princeton's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. WuD ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nicholas D
Nicholas is a male name, the Anglophone version of an ancient Greek name in use since antiquity, and cognate with the modern Greek , . It originally derived from a combination of two Greek words meaning 'victory' and 'people'. In turn, the name means "victory of the people." The name has been widely used in countries with significant Christian populations, owing in part to the veneration of Saint Nicholas, which became increasingly prominent in Western Europe from the 11th century. Revered as a saint in many Christian denominations, the Eastern Orthodox, Catholic, and Anglican Churches all celebrate Saint Nicholas Day on December 6. In maritime regions throughout Europe, the name and its derivatives have been especially popular, as St Nicholas is considered the protector saint of seafarers. This remains particularly so in Greece, where St Nicholas is the patron saint of the Hellenic Navy. Origins The name derives from the . It is understood to mean 'victory of the people' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Half The Sky
''Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide'' is a nonfiction book by husband and wife team Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn, published by Knopf in September 2009. It is also a 2012 PBS documentary based on the book. The book argues that the oppression of women worldwide is "the paramount moral challenge" of the present era, much as the fight against slavery was in the past. The title comes from a famous Mao Zedong quote "women hold up half the sky", although the authors cite it only as a "Chinese proverb". Overview ''Half the Sky'' focuses on prostitution, rape, education, maternal mortality, genital mutilation, micro-credit, and solutions in developing countries. Prostitution Prostitution is prevalent in developing countries. Kristof and Wudunn visit brothels to better understand this industry. Many girls are abducted at an early age. They might be sold by their families because they cannot afford raising them, or sold to pay off a family ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Omidyar Network
Omidyar Network is a self-styled "philanthropic investment firm," composed of a foundation and an impact investment firm. Established in 2004 by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar and his wife Pam, Omidyar Network has committed over US$1.5billion to nonprofit organizations and for-profit companies across multiple investment areas. As of 2022, the organization has offices in Silicon Valley, Bengaluru, London, Mumbai, Nairobi, and Washington, D.C. History The Omidyar Network comprises a 501(c)(3) and a Limited Liability Company (LLC), and part of The Omidyar Group. It was established in 2004 by Pierre Omidyar and his wife Pam. In 2018, Omidyar Network spun off its Governance & Citizen Engagement initiative. The group now operates as Luminate, a global philanthropic organization that invests in civic empowerment, data and digital rights, financial transparency, and independent media. It is led by Stephen King. In 2019, Omidyar Network spun off its Financial Inclusion initiative. The ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
American Express
American Express Company or Amex is an American bank holding company and multinational financial services corporation that specializes in payment card industry, payment cards. It is headquartered at 200 Vesey Street, also known as American Express Tower, in the Battery Park City neighborhood of Lower Manhattan. Amex is the fourth-largest card network globally based on purchase volume, behind China UnionPay, Visa Inc., Visa, and Mastercard. 141.2 million Amex cards were in force worldwide as of December 31, 2023, with an average annual spend per card member of US$24,059. That year, Amex handled over $1.7 trillion in purchase volume on its network. Amex is list of largest banks in the United States, the 16th largest US bank, with a total of US$270 billion in assets or 1.1% of all assets insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, FDIC. It is ranked 77th on the Fortune 500, ''Fortune'' 500 and 28th on the list of the most valuable brands by ''Forbes''. In 2023, it was ra ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sam's Club
Sam's West, Inc. (doing business as Sam's Club) is a chain of membership-only warehouse club retail stores in the United States owned by Walmart. It was founded in 1983 and named after Walmart founder Sam Walton as Sam's Wholesale Club. , Sam's Club ranks second in sales volume among warehouse clubs with $90.2 billion in sales, ahead of BJ's Wholesale Club but behind its main rival Costco. , Sam's Club operates 600 membership warehouse clubs in the United States across 44 states and Puerto Rico, with no locations in Alaska, Massachusetts, Oregon, Rhode Island, Washington State, and Vermont. Sam's Club offers car wash services at gas stations in 41 locations. Sam's Club also operates 173 locations in Mexico and 48 locations in China. Grupo Big, formerly Walmart Brazil, which was de-consolidated from Walmart in August 2018 and since then is part of Carrefour Group, also operates 58 Sam's Club locations in Brazil and to operate them pay a fee for the use of the brand. Locations ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Skoll Foundation
The Skoll Foundation is a private foundation based in Palo Alto, California, Palo Alto, California. The foundation makes grants and investments intended to reduce global poverty. Billionaire entrepreneur Jeffrey Skoll created the foundation in 1999. The total assets of the foundation (including its affiliated funds) amount to $1.127 billion as of 2018. The combined entities made Grant (money), grants totaling about $71 million in 2018 (and disbursements of $56M), based on unaudited numbers reported by the foundation. According to the most recent audited financial statements, the non-grant expenses for the foundation totaled around $17 million in 2018. History Skoll set up the foundation in 1999 to fund social entrepreneurship through awards, grants and educational programs at University of Oxford, Oxford and Harvard University, Harvard Universities. Skoll, the first president of eBay, created the Skoll Foundation after setting up the eBay Foundation. In 2001, Skoll hired Sally R ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Visa Inc
Visa Inc. () is an American multinational payment card services corporation headquartered in San Francisco, California. It facilitates electronic funds transfers throughout the world, most commonly through Visa-branded credit cards, debit cards and prepaid cards. Visa does not issue cards, extend credit, or set rates and fees for consumers; rather, Visa provides financial institutions with Visa-branded payment products that they then use to offer credit, debit, prepaid and cash access programs to their customers. In 2015, the Nilson Report, a publication that tracks the credit card industry, found that Visa's global network (known as VisaNet) processed 100 billion transactions during 2014 with a total volume of US$6.8 trillion. This article is authored by a ''Forbes'' staff member. Visa was founded in 1958 by Bank of America (BofA) as the BankAmericard credit card program. Available through SpringerLink. In response to competitor Master Charge (now Mastercard ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chevron Corporation
Chevron Corporation is an American multinational energy corporation predominantly specializing in oil and gas. The second-largest direct descendant of Standard Oil, and originally known as the Standard Oil Company of California (shortened to Socal or CalSo), it is active in more than 180 countries. Within oil and gas, Chevron is vertically integrated and is involved in hydrocarbon exploration, production, refining, marketing and transport, chemicals manufacturing and sales, and power generation. Founded originally in Southern California during the 1870s, the company was then based for many decades in San Francisco, California, before moving its corporate offices to San Ramon, California, in 2001; on August 2, 2024, Chevron announced that it would be relocating its headquarters from California to Houston, Texas. Chevron traces its history back to the second half of the 19th century to small California-based oil companies which were acquired by Standard and merged into St ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Revenue
In accounting, revenue is the total amount of income generated by the sale of product (business), goods and services related to the primary operations of a business. Commercial revenue may also be referred to as sales or as turnover. Some company, companies receive revenue from interest, royalties, or other fees. This definition is based on International Accounting Standard, IAS 18. "Revenue" may refer to income in general, or it may refer to the amount, in a monetary unit, earned during a period of time, as in "Last year, company X had revenue of $42 million". Profit (accounting), Profits or net income generally imply total revenue minus total expenses in a given period. In accountancy, accounting, revenue is a subsection of the equity section of the balance statement, since it increases equity. It is often referred to as the "top line" due to its position at the very top of the income statement. This is to be contrasted with the "bottom line" which denotes net income (gross reve ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
