Givers League responds, reaches out and rescues the less fortunate from the vicious cycle of poverty and hopelessness they face year after year, day after day and so on. 

The revolutionary program introduced as MICRO FORWARDS by the Founder of Givers League is used to rebuild lives of struggling people, helps them gain control of their future and restores hope to them.

Responding and reaching out to the suffering poor and providing “a meal” or “a day’s need” or “a month’s need” is good; but is that good enough?

• Our strategy is to do far beyond that. It is somewhat similar to the proverbial “give a poor man a fish and he’ll eat it for one day, but if you give him a fishing rod he will eat for a life time”. We also aim for “life time” results with much more value addition to see lives completely transformed.
• Based on individual specific needs, training, counseling, mentoring are also provided. They need to be helped to take the required responsibility. Most are hardworking, skilled and intelligent individuals with various talents. They wish to be productive and self reliant; they are willing and have been dreaming of doing great things. However, unfortunately they neither have the opportunity nor the means to do so. A whole lot of transformation is needed therefore with creative and analytical thinking to provide the best, most suitable, user friendly, permanent solution to this.
• We at Givers League with a great strategic vision have taken on this challenge and is fully committed to make a permanent difference in the lives of poverty stricken individuals and families.
• We don’t just respond and reach out to meet a present need, but make sure they are rescued forever from generational poverty.

The Micro-Forwards model is very much different to the Micro-Loans and Micro-Grants models. In micro-loans, the recipient becomes a borrower having to pay a loan installment with an extremely high interest component built into it. In micro-grants, the receiver becomes a grantee and        just consumes the money without any obligation or loyalty to do something in return. In Micro Forwards, the receivers accept the responsibility to give forward through Givers League (GL) and become GIVERS themselves.

Type of Beneficiary: Micro Forwards are given to capable, hard working and responsible poor entrepreneurs who show confidence that they are able to prove the viability of their small scale businesses and who are also willing to be givers themselves after 3 months of receiving their financial help. After the 3 month period, the receiver gives back monthly 1/24^th of the capital, and return the total principal amount in 24 months. Further, they are required to open Bank Savings Accounts and deposit to same whatever is possible from the very first month after they receive the micro forward from Givers League.

Identification of Beneficiaries:  This responsibility lies with the party who contacts Givers League (GL) showing interest and commitment to help a particular impoverished community or a certain group of deserving people through GL.  Such a party is referred  to as a Partner Leader. He/she may represent a small organization, society, religious group, village committee, or even be a responsible individual with a heart for social service of this nature.  Whoever it is, GL will check the bona fide of such organizations or individuals prior to proceeding towards an agreement to partner with them. Once GL is satisfied with the credentials of the Partner Leader, the group or organization he/she represents is called a Cell.

Memorandum of Understanding (MOU): The Cell signs a MOU with GL agreeing to follow the procedures/requirements as explained there.  The partner leader will appoint cell leader/s as and when required depending on the size of the cell; size of the cell depends on the number of beneficiaries the cell helps through GL.

Cell Activity:  Partner Leader/Cell Leaders ensure that all beneficiaries use the given micro forwards for the projects they requested the funds for. Progress updates need to be reported to GL.  Monthly collections from the beneficiaries after the first 3 months’ grace period should be deposited back to GL; GL then holds the respective give-backs from each cell as a reserve fund for that cell to recycle same in the same respective community when new MF requests are received.  GL appoints Monitoring Managers to monitor cell activity.

Value Addition:  GL makes sure that the beneficiaries are mentored / counseled / guided accordingly to assist them in adapting to the new way of life they would be experiencing. Careful spending habits, living within their means, planning the finances properly, commitment to save, etc. are taught, and also counseling where needed is also provided.  All these things are done by volunteers; at GL all work as volunteers.

Our approach is unique: It stands out from all the other micro finance programs out there because of its 5 great features: (1) the beneficiaries have no interest burden, (2) they enjoy a three months’ grace period, (3) they become proud owners of savings accounts and start saving, (4) after 24 months’ easy repayments scheme they become donors themselves, (5)  Donations received are 100% used for the cause with 0% kept back for operational expenses.