Economic Development

Opportunity International is a global nonprofit working to end extreme poverty. We give small loans, training, and support  to people living on less than $2 per day so that they can grow their businesses and send their kids to school. We’ve worked in  developing countries for 50 years, empowering millions of small business owners, farmers, and educators. OI provides a hand up  approach, rather than a handout. Opportunity responds to Jesus Christ’s call to love and serve the poor. We seek to emulate the  “Good Samaritan” whose compassion crossed ethnic groups  and religions and aims to serve the more difficult places [...]

The International Rescue Committee was founded in 1933, at the suggestion of Albert Einstein, to assist Europeans suffering under the Nazi regime. Since then, the IRC has become a global  leader in humanitarian response. It reaches people affected by conflict and disaster in more than 40 countries around the world and, through its newly merged Resettlement, Asylum & Integration (RAI) department, helps rebuild the lives of refugees who have been resettled in countries such as the United States. Since 1975, IRC has provided comprehensive resettlement and integration services to nearly 400,000 refugees representing 119 distinct nationalities.  $25 helps stock a refugee [...]

Habitat for Humanity East Bay/Silicon Valley builds strength,  stability, and self-reliance through homeownership. Here in the Bay Area, new homeowner and single mom Julieta worked on her credit with a Habitat counselor before applying to purchase a home. “It’s so empowering… I never thought I could say I’m  building my own home. If I can help other single moms know  that I’ve come this far, I want to encourage them.” By providing  an affordable mortgage, homebuyer training, and new skills from  500 hours of “sweat equity,” Habitat empowers homeowners like Julieta to show her daughter that anything is possible.   $15 buys [...]