Millions Loaned to Small Business Owners Around the World Through Matter to a Million

$9.5 million. That’s how much has been loaned to small business owners around the world in two years through Matter to a Million, a five-year, global partnership between the HP Company Foundation and non-profit, micro-lending platform Kiva.  Kiva’s vision is to support the working poor as they create opportunity for themselves and their families.

Through the program, each year every HP employee receives a $25 credit to lend to Kiva borrowers. The program has struck a huge chord by providing an easy, inspiring and rewarding way to invest in entrepreneurs from a variety of backgrounds.

The loans made through Kiva help farmers, teachers, fishers, and other business owners grow their businesses and help their communities, and the numbers grow every day.

But as proud as we are of the $9.5 million number, it’s the individual stories behind that number that are really important.

Stories like Maria Teresa’s.  Every morning Maria Teresa wakes up at 4 am to sow corn and carry it to a nearby mill before she starts to make the tortillas that she sells for a living. She had asked for a loan of $1,600 to use toward buying one part in a heifer, and three truckloads of wood to improve the shack where she sells her wares. Fifty employees used their $25 credits to help Maria obtain the loan.

In Indonesia, 49 employees supported the Karanjung Lestari Group to obtain a $2,400 loan. Part of the loan helped group member Ni Made to purchase livestock and high quality feeds for his pig farm. Now he has one additional sow and three local piglets. In a few months he hopes he’ll be able to sell the piglets and that the sow will have given birth to new piglets.

In the Dominican Republic, Maria used her portion of a $3,725 loan made to the Emmanuel 1 & 2 group to invest in her grocery business. Thanks to support from more than 40 HP employees, Maria can buy fruits and vegetables such as avocados, bananas, oranges, mangoes, and other products like meat, rice, bean, flour and sugar. A true success story, this is Maria’s 19th loan. She has successfully repaid all her previous loans and grown her business.

Matter to a Million is one way we are working to create a better future through our actions and innovations. It’s simply the way we do business, and we call it HP Living Progress. 

To find out more, watch the Matter to a Million launch video.