TechnoServe Receives a Grant from Google.org for International Development
Grant will help spur the growth of small and medium enterprises
JANUARY 17, 2008 — Google.org has named TechnoServe as a grantee in a new strategic plan it unveiled today. Google.org has also awarded TechnoServe a new multi-year grant of $3 million to expand the organization's private-sector development efforts.
This builds on Google.org's support of TechnoServe's “Believe Begin Become” national business plan competitions in Ghana and Tanzania.
The focus of the grant is to spur the growth of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), which are vital to ending the cycle of poverty in developing countries. SMEs create the bulk of new ideas and jobs in most developed economies, but they are scarce in other parts of the world, mainly due to a lack of access to business training and capital.
“Small and medium enterprises are a powerful engine of growth, jobs and opportunities,” says Google.org manager Rachel Payne. “We have chosen TechnoServe because of the organization's long track record of working with entrepreneurial people to give them the tools, training and access to capital that they need to create viable businesses.”
“We are very excited to expand and deepen our partnership with Google.org,” says TechnoServe president & CEO Bruce McNamer. “Their commitment to market-based development is ideally aligned with TechnoServe's mission. Together we are helping people create the kind of enterprises needed to end the cycle of poverty in developing countries.”
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About TechnoServe: TechnoServe helps entrepreneurial men and women in the developing world to build businesses that provide jobs, income and economic opportunity. Since its founding in 1968, the U.S.-based nonprofit has helped to create or expand more than 2,000 businesses, benefiting millions of people in more than 30 countries. A Financial Times survey has rated TechnoServe one of the world’s top five non-governmental organizations (NGOs) for corporate partnerships. TechnoServe has also been recognized as one of the world's “Outstanding Social Entrepreneurs” by the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship.
About Google.org: Google.org, the philanthropic arm of Google, uses the power of information and technology to help people improve their lives. Google.org develops and invests in tools and partnerships that can help bring shared knowledge to bear on the world's most pressing challenges in the areas of climate change, economic development and global health. For more information, visit http://www.google.org.
