Women and Finance

Whole Planet Foundation partners and Whole Foods Market suppliers commit $1.05 million to support microfinance initiatives across the world.

We are excited to announce our new partnership with Concern Worldwide in Burundi to support their Terintambwe program, which provides case management services to ultra-poor households so they have opportunities to become more self-sufficient and start small businesses.

Our economic empowerment programs connect underserved people to skills, meaningful employment, financial products and services, and opportunities they need to thrive and develop careers.

With the strategic support of Cisco, partners like Living Goods and Opportunity International make it possible for people to break the cycle of poverty for themselves and for their communities through new uses of data and technology. But those solutions — more common than ever in today’s digital economy — aren’t always equitably accessible to one of our largest populations — women.

To kick off 2019, The Whole Planet Foundation team would like to thank our network of microfinance institutions, the implementing partners who administer the microloans Whole Planet Foundation funds.

Whole Planet Foundation was created to support communities worldwide where Whole Foods Market sources products. Flowers for Whole Foods Market stores across the US, Canada, and the UK, are sourced in large quantities from Colombia — so while it’s perhaps a bit of a happy coincidence, it seems quite fitting that Whole Planet Foundation’s newest microfinance partner in Colombia is called Aflore, the name of which comes from the Spanish word flor, for ‘flower.’

2018 proved to be an active year in Corporate Social Responsibility with issues related to sustainability, globalization, advocacy on social issues and multiple natural disasters in the forefront.

Whole Planet Foundation invites you to join the Family Fund, a program that leverages the power of community to alleviate global poverty for families through entrepreneurship.

Whole Planet Foundation is excited to introduce Bidhaa Sasa, their newest partner in Kenya. Bidhaa Sasa sells, delivers, and finances beneficial products to low income populations in rural areas. Our team likes their client-centric approach to affordable credit, responsive customer service, and attention to internal systems.

Thrive, a microfinance business based in Harare, Zimbabwe believes in lending that leads to economic growth for women and girls who would ordinarily fail to access financial services from the mainstream financial sector. Thrive joins Business Call to Action with a commitment that will provide microenterprise loans and borrowing and business management training for 16,500 economically active low-income women and girls.

Earlier this year, Erb Institute student, Chris Owen, MBA/MS 2020, worked with Casa María Amor in Cuenca, Ecuador via an Erb Institute Impact Project. This video features such a project. Casa María Amor is a women’s shelter on the outskirts of Cuenca in the Andes Mountains. Chris conceived, developed and launched an Erb Impact project to help the women of Casa María Amor develop skills aimed at achieving economic independence after leaving abusive relationships.