We provide seed money to organizations working in local communities to enable individuals to start a business. Rather than the more traditional method of simply providing money to help people in the short term, but not enough to sustain them in the long term, we help through microfinancing.

Microfinancing means we provide modest sums of money to individuals to assist them in starting their own small businesses to eventually become self-sufficient. 

A majority of our focus is on helping women because we believe that women are often the influencers of their household. They take care of the children and the husband, and unfortunately most often the ones who are given less opportunities for education and business. In the end, however, all of our projects are about empowering people, men, women, and children, in communities arond the world, to envision and create sustainable change. What better way to do this than through microfinancing.

For more information about what American Initiatives does, please visit the How We Work page.