![](\"http:\/\/www.greenoptions.com\/files\/images\/fin%20support_0.img_assist_custom.JPG\")
Providing financial support to Fair Trade producers moves beyond simply paying fair price for products. Many times financial support simply means pre-payment on at least a portion of placed orders to allow the producers to secure raw materials. Remaining payments are to be made promptly, unlike large corporate counterparts which typically wait 60-90days. <\/p>\n
While purchasing items on several months\u2019 credit is commonplace in business making an artisan or farmer to wait several months before receiving his\/her only income causes undue hardship on producers and their families. Beyond payment for goods, Fair Trade relationships are based on a long-term goal of mutual success. Fair Trade importers are therefore invested in the growth and success of their counterparts, and will frequently give small micro-loans to help with product expansion, capacity building, quality control and funding for certification. <\/p>\n
These micro-loans can be integral to the success of small businesses, yet are hard to come by through conventional means. Typical banks shy away from loaning money to assest-less poor, and many charitable organizations are focused only on massive undertakings and will not involve themselves in small loans. Loans and financing are a business necessity that Western operations take for granted when starting up or expanding. Micro-financing has been proven to be a successful development tool<\/a>. One of the pioneers of micro-financing, the Grameen Bank<\/a>, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize and the resulting publicity has brought such micro loans and their high return rate into public awareness. <\/p>\n Kiva<\/a> was created to help bridge the gap between people with a small amount to loan and those which need it. Kiva is a Swahili word meaning \u201cagreement\u201d or \u201cunity\u201d and their website allows you to enter into this agreement quite easily. What sets Kiva apart is that it allows average-income individuals to lend small amounts (as little as $25). Kiva is a non-profit and supported solely through additional donations, so you\u2019re assured 100% of your loan is in the hands of the person requesting and thus far Kiva has experienced a 100% repayment rate on all business loans. The individual stories and progressive journal entries allow you to personally connect with those you wish to help. <\/p>\n It is through financial assistance rather than blanket charity that small businesses and this poor communities will be able to grow and thrive.<\/p>\n This is the fourth in a series of posts discussing the Fair Trade criteria. Also check out Fair Trade: Transparency<\/a>, Fair Trade: Fair Wages<\/a> and Fair Trade: Environment<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Providing financial support to Fair Trade producers moves beyond simply paying fair price for products. Many times financial support simply means pre-payment on at least a portion of placed orders to allow the producers to secure raw materials. Remaining payments are to be made promptly, unlike large corporate counterparts which typically wait 60-90days. While purchasing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-826","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/salvaeco.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/826","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/salvaeco.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/salvaeco.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/salvaeco.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/salvaeco.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=826"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/salvaeco.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/826\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/salvaeco.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=826"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/salvaeco.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=826"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/salvaeco.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=826"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/img><\/a><\/p>\n
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