Corporate charitable partnerships come alive with Five Talents
Five Talents UK, a microfinance charity, has secured several corporate partnerships which have had a transformative effect.
Five Talents fights poverty, creates jobs and transforms lives by empowering the active poor in developing countries using innovative savings and microcredit programmes, business training and holistic development. Its target is to reach at least 70,000 loan-clients by the end of 2012, impacting one million people through job creation and family livelihoods. Five Talents UK welcomes corporate partnerships as a means of introducing people to a positive message about poverty alleviation, which transforms both the giver and the recipient. Microfinance is an enterprise solution to poverty, where the economically active poor are equipped with business training and the opportunity to take a small loan to build a family business. Loans start as low as £25 per person, and are repaid over 6 months with a small amount of interest.
Total Affinity, one of the leading consultancies, gave an ongoing share of its profits to support the work of Five Talents. Strutt & Parker were the proud sponsors of the Enton tennis tournament in September 2006 which raised over £7000 for Five Talents micro-loan projects in developing countries. DMS UK Ltd sponsored the Five Talents movies illustrating their work in Uganda and Tanzania. Parragon has focused its support on the Five Talents UK’s microfinance programme in Tanzania. Staff at the Parragon worldwide offices have visited the work and through staff participation now feel part of something bigger.
Staff from The Fair Investment Company, another UK corporate partner with Five Talents UK, climbed Ben Nevis in 2010. The company also hosted a lunchtime update in its offices and one of the directors travelled to Tanzania to see the work for himself. Colourburn Media generously produced a promotional video for Five Talents that had its debut at its House of Lords Fundraiser for East Africa in October 2008. Five Talents banks with the Co-operative Bank and in 2010 the Group hosted a fundraising reception on behalf of Five Talents which raised £10,000 for its programme in Tanzania. In 2011 the CFS partnered with Five Talents to produce a short film illustrating the merits of microfinance.