About WILFund: FAQs

Frequently Asked Questions about WILFund

How does WILFund fight poverty?

WILFund fights poverty one loan and one woman at a time. WILFund offers women resources such as credit, business coaching, and access to markets, to succeed in building profit-generating businesses. With an income and business skills training, these women are better able to provide for their families, ensure their children receive an education, and help create jobs for other women in their communities, thus breaking the cycle of poverty. WILFund empowers women and gives them the means to change their own lives for the better, and the lives of their children.

How can I help?

Join us by providing loan capital to women and help change lives. Click here to contribute now to WILFund. Interested in becoming an advocate or a volunteer? Contact us for more information.

What is WILFund and Microenterprise Development?

Microenterprise development is an approach to helping the poor become self-sufficient. It generates income, creates jobs, and establishes self-sufficient communities in some of the world’s poorest developing countries. WILFund works through World Vision’s MFIs in 45 countries that grant loans to ensure that impoverished women have access to credit. Repaid loans are recycled to help an ever growing number of poor entrepreneurial women globally grow their businesses, better support their families, generate jobs, and aid their communities.

Working through World Vision’s sustainable development model, WILFund's efforts invest in hard-working poor women, giving hope to families and whole communities, especially given they are provided in combination with assistance that addresses other primary needs such as clean water, food and agricultural training, primary health care, and education.

Click here to read more about World Vision's role in microenterprise development.

Why is WILFund for women?

In many cases, women are financially responsible for their families, yet traditional lending institutions often overlook them because they do not possess collateral or a credit history. In developing countries, WILFund empowers these women by providing opportunity in the form of a loan they would not have otherwise, with the intent to help them become self-sufficient. World Vision’s experience in microenterprise development has shown that giving loans to women is a good investment. Not only do women demonstrate a high loan repayment rate, but they also consistently use their extra income to benefit their children and families. Investing in women can help lift an entire community out of poverty.

When I make a gift to WILFund, where does it go?

Individual gifts to WILFund are pooled together, and then loaned to World Vision microfinance institutions in developing countries that distribute the funds as a loan to an individual woman in need. Because it is not tied to one specific microfinance institution, WILFund is able to shift its focus as need dictates. Your gift goes where it is needed the most, when it is needed the most.

Can I specify where my gift is used?

Gifts of $100,000 or more: The donor can determine which World Vision MFI will receive the gift, under the guidance of World Vision U.S.

Gifts of less than $100,000: Donors can rest assured every gift will benefit a woman in desperate need. Gifts to WILFund of less than $100,000 are pooled together with funds from other donors. The WILFund Donor Advisory Board makes decisions about where to allocate funds, based on proposals it receives that include detailed measurable impact (on women and children) estimates. This information enables the Board to make educated decisions, ensuring the funds are being put to the most effective use possible.

Who qualifies for a loan from WILFund?

WILFund microloans are granted to World Vision MFIs in developing countries and then distributed to enterprising women who do not qualify for traditional bank loans. These women must present a business plan (loan coaches help women create their plans) showing how they will invest the funds they receive, but they do not have to possess collateral or a credit history to receive a loan.

How do recipients use their loans?

Recipients use their loans to expand or create profit-generating opportunities for themselves and others. With their new capital and job training, women are able to start new businesses, purchase supplies and equipment, expand operations, market their goods and services, and hire additional staff. Read some of their stories.

What can my financial gift provide?

See the various ways your gift can go to work in the life of a woman loan recipient.

What type of a fund is WILFund?

WILFund is a capital fund, designed to increase its assets over time through interest earned from MFI loans. Read more about how the fund works.

Who manages WILFund?

Donated WILFund capital becomes an asset of World Vision, an organization with a solid history of credibility in the international community and more than $1 billion in revenue worldwide. They have more than 55 years of expertise and experience in helping developing countries tackle poverty.

With more than 45 microfinance institutions already in place on four continents, nearly 250,000 existing clients, and a current total loan portfolio under investment of $71 million, World Vision has already created the infrastructure to administer microfinance programs. Because World Vision has already put these effective tools in place, WILFund is free to concentrate solely on giving loans to women in need, who have proven to be a good investment capable of transforming a community.

How does WILFund work?

WILFund pools financial gifts together, and then loans the sum to World Vision microfinance institutions across the globe. In turn, these MFIs distribute the funds as microloans to impoverished women. When a recipient repays her loan with interest, the microfinance institution repays the loan with interest to WILFund. As a result, the funds grow over time.

How are loans recycled?

Women who receive a loan typically pay it back within 90 days with interest. When the loan is repaid, the money becomes available to be loaned again to another woman in need.

Do most recipients pay back their loans?

Loaning to women is a good investment. WILFund loan recipients have a high repayment history. They repay their loans 97 percent of the time and typically do so within 90 days.

Does WILFund provide other benefits in addition to loans?

WILFund provides women with much more than just a loan. WILFund also equips loan recipients with the necessary tools to ensure their ventures are successful, such as vital job training, enhanced business skills, and valuable technical support. Loan recipients also benefit from HIV/AIDS care and prevention training.

Does WILFund charge interest on its loans?

WILFund charges the MFI interest to ensure the fund's assets increase and will keep helping the most people possible rise out of poverty. MFIs charge their clients market rate interest as well. Without the collateral or credit history to qualify for traditional loans, women can turn to WILFund for the loans they need without subjecting themselves to the bondage of money-lenders.

Loan Models

What types of lending do World Vision MFIs use?

WILFund benefits women by enabling them to access loans of different sizes, based on their needs and lending history with a World Vision MFI. MFIs utilize three primary forms of lending: community banks, solidarity groups, and individual loans.

What is the typical size of a loan granted by WILFund?

WILFund's microloans to individual women range in size from $100 to $5,000.

What is a Community Bank?

WILFund typically loans to World Vision’s MFIs who loan to members of community banks. Entrepreneurial women typically band together in self-selected groups of 15-25 members who agree to cross-guarantee each other’s loans. The group screens potential borrowers and tracks each repayment, building members’ leadership skills and sense of pride along the way. The mutual accountability leads to high repayment rates. These loans range in size from $100 to $500.

What is a Solidarity Group?

Designed for more experienced and larger enterprises, solidarity groups consist of 3-6 members who guarantee each other’s loans. These loans range in size from $300 to $800. Members who make repayments are eligible for larger individual loans.

How does a recipient qualify for a larger loan?

Individual Loans -- Women who have grown their businesses through a solidarity group or have an established mid-sized business are able to qualify for higher loans, ranging in size from $500 to $5,000. These loans generally require collateral of two guarantors, and borrowers often create formal business plans under the guidance and business mentorship of their credit officers.

What is the role of the Donor Advisory Board?

WILFund relies on a select group of Donor Advisory Boards to determine how donated capital is allocated. These Donor Advisory Boards are comprised of educated entrepreneurial men and women in the U.S. and Bermuda who have demonstrated a strong interest in microfinance, international development, and global social justice.

WILFund Donor Advisory Board Members are also responsible for advocating, raising awareness, and raising capital for women entrepreneurs in World Vision’s area development projects.

How does WILFund distribute the funds?

The WILFund Donor Advisory Boards receive proposals from individual microfinance institutions from around the world and makes its selections based on where the need is greatest.

For each disbursement, World Vision submits a minimum of three proposals to WILFund Donor Advisory Boards. Only World Vision programs that allocate funds specifically for women’s businesses and women’s employment will qualify for loans from WILFund. The Donor Advisory Boards carefully review each proposal received, which includes detailed positive measurable impact estimates. This information enables Boards to make educated decisions, thus ensuring funds are being put to the most effective use possible in a region where the loan will make the most significant impact.

How does "political unrest" impact WILFund, and how safe is my investment?

WILFund is different than most funds, because it operates under World Vision’s unique sustainable development model. World Vision works within poor communities to first ensure people have access to clean water, nutritious food, health care, and decent living conditions. Once this foundation is laid, World Vision helps communities develop their own economic stability by establishing microfinance institutions that eventually become self-sufficient and independent, no longer in need of receiving loans from WILFund.

WILFund's assets are safe because WILFund only loans to MFIs that are owned and operated by World Vision. This means that WILFund's assets are protected from political corruption that may exist in a given region. Additionally, these MFIs are sustainable operations because they charge market-rate interest to loan recipients, further ensuring the safety of WILFund's assets.