012. running my first marathon
& empowering women entrepreneurs through the MicroLoan Foundation
In 60 days, I’m running my first marathon…
I’ll share a bit more on that in the coming weeks but today, I’m excited to share about the incredible charity I’m running for.
I’m running the 2024 London Marathon in support of the MicroLoan Foundation. The MicroLoan Foundation is a social micro-finance institution providing business loans and training to empower women facing poverty in sub-Saharan Africa.
What does that mean? Micro-finance is a type of banking that provides financial services to low income individuals or groups of people who would otherwise have no access to finance. MicroLoan Foundation (MLF) issues loans as small as £25 that must be invested in income generating activities; the loans are generally repaid over a four or six month cycle.
MLF couples the micro-loans with ongoing entrepreneurial training and support, as well as extensive financial literacy training, creating a long term and sustainable vehicle out of poverty.
Since starting in 2002, over 390,000 women have joined MicroLoan Foundation to start and scale their own small businesses, and over £98 million in loans has been disbursed.
The MLF reaches some of the absolute poorest communities in Sub-Saharan Africa with 50% of participants living below $1.25 per day. After just one year in the program, 17% of MLF participants move out of extreme poverty. Not only do entrepreneurs in MLF start and build stronger businesses, they also drastically improve food security, asset ownership, access to medical treatment, school enrollment, and employment for their families and communities.
Entrepreneurship takes many forms and in the US, many of us likely think of entrepreneurs as Stanford or MIT software engineers backed by millions in venture capital funding. Those are often society’s most celebrated entrepreneurs but there are also outstanding and world-class entrepreneurs in less visible corners of the world, as well as capable entrepreneurs in need of a window of opportunity.
A great entrepreneur is not just the founder or businessperson that takes their company public or generates billions in revenue, but someone that takes any small seed (capital, time, labor) and uses it to drastically move their family, community, or the world forward.
It should come as no surprise that not everyone has equal opportunity to become an entrepreneur. In parts of the world, certain geographies or demographics lack the resources, capital and tools for capable humans to become world-class entrepreneurs.
In countries like Malawi, Zambia, and Zimbabwe, women living in rural communities often struggle to build better lives for themselves and their families. Entrepreneurship is one of the best, most-sustainable ways for them to work their way out of poverty and studies have shown that as women flourish as entrepreneurs, their businesses help the broader communities prosper economically and socially.
I’m an unwavering supporter of capitalism and believe entrepreneurship is the most powerful engine of human progress. I’ve seen first-hand how drastically entrepreneurship can transform our planet, culture, communities, families, and individual lives, and I feel lucky to support entrepreneurs everyday in my professional life, backing early-stage startup founders at a16z crypto. I work in crypto because its core ideology is rooted in pushing power to the edges of a network, subsequently enabling those at the edges equal footing to build and innovate.
To extend these efforts to my personal life by raising money and running for the MicroLoan Foundation is an honor.
My goal is to raise at least £5,000 for MicroLoan Foundation and my personal goal for the marathon is to finish in under 3 hours. If you’d like to support my fundraising efforts, please click the button below.
If you’d like to learn more about the foundation, I’d recommend watching Mrs. Mkonde’s story below, or reading about MLF’s social microfinance model and impact.
Thank you in advance 🖤
Excited for you Jay!!!