The Trickle Up Program empowers people living on less than $1.25 a day to take the first steps out of poverty.

Trickle Up does this by providing those less fortunate with the resources to build sustainable livelihoods for a better quality of life. They use their partnerships with local agencies in order to provide training and use capital grants to launch or expand microenterprises to support and build assets.

There are an estimated 1.4 billion people living in extreme poverty, which means there is an immense need for economic development programs that can produce sustainable change in the lives of the poorest people.

The Trickle Up Program was founded in 1979 to ensure that the poorest people in any nation could have a chance to build a better life for themselves. In three decades, the program has successfully increased income levels of extremely poor households around the world.

Three years ago, Trickle Up served nearly 8,000 participants with an average of five people benefiting from each Trickle Up-supported enterprise.  This means over 41,000 people will improve their quality of life as a result of the program’s work this year alone.

Trickle Up aims to serve people at the very bottom of the socioeconomic scale. The program’s unique approach is designed for households whose per capita income is less than $1.25 a day.  Households living at this level of poverty lack the security to qualify for formal credit services and are not in a position to benefit from any strategy that carries a risk to plunge them further into debt.

This is where the Trickle Up Program comes into play.  Their poverty reduction strategy includes a one-time capital grant, called a Trickle Up Spark Grant.  This provides the participants with the necessary startup capital to launch or expand microenterprises.

This, in conjunction with highly structured business and livelihood training can facilitate the formation of community-based savings and effectively boost household incomes to make continued progress out of poverty.

Their end goal is to empower the world’s poorest people so that they can develop their potential and strengthen their communities from within. Trickle Up pursues this goal in a way that encourages innovation and leadership while promoting communication and cooperation among all their communities.

– Cara Morgan

Sources: Ford Foundation, Trickle Up
Photo: Trickle Up