Donor Funds Will Be Multiplied 10X Through Partner Organizations to Create $1 Billion in Global Impact for Families Rebuilding After Pandemic

CHICAGO, March 23, 2022  — Opportunity International today announced an ambitious capital campaign marking its 50-year history, with a goal of raising $100 million by the end of 2022 to help 25 million individuals in the least developed countries surviving on less than $1.90 per day. The campaign will equip them to build sustainable livelihoods and ensure an education for their children. Since the Waymaker campaign’s launch at the start of 2020, the organization has secured $78 million toward its goal and is now starting the public phase of the campaign.

“After many years of progress, extreme poverty around the globe grew significantly in the past two years,” said Atul Tandon, Opportunity International CEO.  “Our Waymaker campaign will help reverse this trend by leveraging our longstanding partnerships with more than 100 global financial institutions to deliver $1 billion of innovative financial resources and training, building jobs for millions of people and educational opportunities for children in rural communities.”

Capital raised through the Waymaker campaign will be focused primarily in 11 high-need countries where the lack of access to jobs, markets, and essential services like schools inhibit families and communities from building sustainable livelihoods.

“We invite others to join us as waymakers for entrepreneurs and for children,” said Mary Lynn Staley, co-chair of the Waymaker campaign with her husband Warren, Opportunity Board member Joel Johnson, and his wife Beth. “As a lifelong advocate for education, it is my passionate hope that this will create long-term success and income for families across the globe.”

As a GuideStar Platinum-rated nonprofit organization, Opportunity has a proven record of stewarding philanthropic investments to help families break the cycle of poverty.

ABOUT OPPORTUNITY INTERNATIONAL 

Opportunity International is a global non-profit celebrating more than 50 years of equipping people to work their way out of poverty. Opportunity provides 19.4 million families with innovative financial resources, training, and support to grow their small businesses and send their children to school. In 2020, Opportunity International and its partners released $2.3 billion in capital across 30 countries and helped fund 8,800 schools that reached 2.8 million children.                        

Discover more at opportunity.org or join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter.