ACCION International is a private, nonprofit organization with the mission of giving people the financial tools they need – microenterprise loans, business training, and other financial services – to work their way out of poverty.  A world pioneer in microfinance, ACCION International was founded in 1961 and issued the first microloan in 1973 in Brazil.

ACCION International's partner microfinance institutions today are providing loans as low as $100 to poor women and men entrepreneurs in 22 countries in Latin America, the Caribbean, Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, and in the U.S. In the last decade alone, ACCION partners have disbursed $7.6 billion in loans to nearly 4.1 million borrowers, 65 percent of whom are women. Ninety-seven percent of these loans have been repaid. Selected for the third consecutive year for its pioneering approaches to poverty alleviation, ACCION was among 25 organizations awarded the 2006 Social Capitalist Award by Fast Company magazine.

For more information, visit www.accion.org.