Mission Statement

ACCION International is a private, nonprofit organization with the mission of giving people the financial tools they need to work their way out of poverty. By providing ‘micro’ loans, business training and other financial services to poor men and women who start their own businesses, ACCION helps people to work their way up the economic ladder, with dignity and pridepride.

Details

ACCION's goal is to bring the full range of financial services - including "micro" loans - to ever increasing numbers of people to have a significant impact on world poverty. ACCION International believes that microfinance programs have the potential to cover their own costs. The interest each borrower pays helps to finance the cost of lending to another. In most poverty alleviation efforts, every person helped brings the program closer to its financial limits. Successful microfinance programs, on the other hand, generate more resources with each individual they help.

As a result, well-managed microfinance programs generate more income than they spend. Once they become economically viable financial institutions, they have the ability to access a virtually unlimited source of lending capital - the billions of dollars invested in the world's financial markets.

ACCION partners with more than 35 microfinance organizations throughout Latin America, the Caribbean, Asia and Africa, as well as serving U.S. microentrepreneurs through the U.S. ACCION Network. In 2006, ACCION and its partners served over 2.46 million active borrowers, and since 1997 has loaned $12.3 billion to more than 4.94 million people.