Creating sustainable businesses.Transforming lives.
History
Key Milestones
1987
Village Enterprise Fund founded by Brian Lehnen and Joan Hestenes as a small, volunteer-run nonprofit operated from their home.1995
Brian leaves his career in biotechnology to serve as Executive Director of Village Enterprise Fund, supported by a Board of Directors and part-time paid staff. Village Enterprise Fund operates in many countries (Philippines, India, Haiti, Kenya, Uganda and others), mainly as a grants distributor.2001
Decisions made to focus on East Africa (Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania), to add a formal training and mentoring program, and to employ paid full-time African staff to oversee field operations and improve and evaluate the program on the ground.2004
Launch of ambitious “Next 100,000 Lives” campaign with goal to raise $3 million to expand the number of new businesses, improve programs and positively impact the lives of 100,000 people in East Africa.2005
Jessica Jackley co-founded Kiva, the world's first peer-to-peer online micro lending website, after seeing the power, beauty, and dignity of microenterprise development while working with Village Enterprise on impact evaluation and program development in East Africa in 2004.2007
Independent evaluation of standard of living completed after two years of data collection in the field.2008
“Next 100,000 Lives” campaign goal exceeded, with $3.2 million raised. Over the course of the four-year campaign, Village Enterprise started 8,300 businesses, trained 40,000 business owners, and improved the lives of over 200,000 people.2010
Brian Lehnen retires and Dianne Calvi takes over as CEO. Independent evaluation of business sustainability completed in the field. Village Enterprise selected by GiveWell, a New-York based charity evaluation nonprofit, as one of their top-ranked charities (in top 10 of 400+ evaluated).2011
Village Enterprise launches new 5 -Year Strategic Plan, redesigned web site, new branding (new name, logo, colors, mission and tagline), a formal savings program, and a field fellowship program.2012
Village Enterprise celebrates 25 years of transforming lives. Visit the News and Events section for details about our 25th Anniversary Gala happening on March 9th, 2013.:
Striving to make poverty obsolete since 1987
Hard-working people struggling to care for their families. Children lacking food, education, health care, and hope. Women using meager
resources to provide meals for their families. These are the people of rural East Africa. They live in the most impoverished region of the
world, beyond the reach of most poverty reduction and micro-financing initiatives.
For over two decades, Village Enterprise has dedicated our efforts to equipping these people with the resources to create sustainable
businesses.
Program Highlights
- 25,000 small businesses launched with Village Enterprise’s help
- 88% of businesses continue beyond 1 year, and 75% still going after 4 years
- A third of our entrepreneurs start additional businesses
- An improved standard of living for a half-million people
- Tripling of donations in the past 5 years