Poverty2Prosperity.org

09/05/2026

You Spend our Grant Money! You Choose a Borrower to Get a 0% Interest Loan! We'll Fund It! Send a friend the link so they can too!
https://Poverty2Prosperity.org/youchoose/
65,000+ Loans Made Since 2008 with a 98.92% Repayment Rate
100% Volunteer Organization
More than 97% of ALL Donations Into Our Loan Program

Browse real borrowers raising loans right now and choose one — Poverty2Prosperity will make a 0% interest microloan on your behalf, at no cost to you.

08/23/2026

Want to try something fun? Willing to read a bit? Be a Poverty2Prosperity.org fund manager for a moment! Yes, YOU CHOOSE a borrower and we'll fund their 0% interest loan at no cost to you - no donation required - just your time to make a choice:
In early 2008, my wife handed me an article in the New York Times and said, "I think this will interest you.", and it was about the success of 0% interest loans to the working poor (mostly women) in Bangladesh. Two years earlier, Muhammad Yunus and Grameen Bank had won the Nobel Peace prize for this program which is the founding of Microfinance (see link in comments). Being a life-long investor and being fully aware that others do not have the same financial opportunities and access to credit that I did, I WAS interested, but didn't think much more of this other than, "that's so cool... but I won't have anything to do with that... hope it keeps working..." BUT, I did have something more to do with it. I decided to found Poverty2Prosperity.org which would allow other people to contribute to a central organization which could make these types of loans on their behalf. In 2008, I did not know if this would work and there were people on the Internet who said it would NEVER work... But it DID work (wonder if Extreme Poverty is getting better since 2008, see the live stats (July 2026) from the World Bank in the comment section). Since 2008, P2P has made 65,000 loans in 88 countries with a 98.92% repayment rate - which just proves that given an opportunity, most people will totally work for it. The founding donation in 2008 will still be making new loans in 2100 hence our tag line; "Donations that can last a century". We've expanded from just a General fund to funds for women, education (tuition fees and education providers), youth (18-26), personal housing, artists, agriculture, climate, single parents, and more. Since we are a 100% volunteer organization, more than 97% of ALL donations have gone directly into our loan-making program.
SO, usually P2P volunteers (and we have a robust high school internship program) are using our available borrower portfolios to choose to whom we will make our next loan.... But I thought to myself this summer, why don't we give people a real view into what we see... so YOU - go ahead, don't just take a look at the potential borrowers - YOU CHOOSE a loan and we'll make it on your behalf at no cost to you. You don't need to make a donation, you just need to read the borrower stories and find one that speaks to you and hit the CHOOSE button. Pick your favorite country, pick your favorite sector, find someone who needs school tuition for their kids, or a farmer, or a seamstress, a fisher-person, hammock weaver, jewelry artisan, corner store owner, or one of many other choices. And share the page with someone else who you think might be interested in choosing a borrower to receive a 0% interest loan from the Poverty2Prosperity.org "You Choose" campaign!
https://Poverty2Prosperity.org/youchoose

Browse real borrowers raising loans right now and choose one — Poverty2Prosperity will make a 0% interest microloan on your behalf, at no cost to you.

08/08/2026

A new tool for Poverty2Prosperity.org donors to view the borrowers their donations are currently supporting. Because of our 99.82% repayment rate since 2008, the very first donation is still making new loans this month and is represented in current active loans/borrowers here!
https://poverty2prosperity.org/ourborrowers/
That donation made in 2008, will still be making new loans in 2100 hence our new tagline (thanks to one of our summer interns no less!): "Donations that can last a century."

These are borrowers your donations are supporting right now — real people repaying real loans, made on behalf of our donors at 0% interest.

08/04/2026

P2P is now an official Kiva Developer. We have registered our Loan Finder app which is available to the general microfinance community at the link below. Feel free to send suggestions to me for improvements/features/changes. My email link is in the first comment:
https://poverty2prosperity.org/loanfinder/

06/11/2026

I really hate articles like this that get posted and it has been happening since I first founded Poverty2Prosperity.org in 2008. Authors like this one conflate, ESSENTIALLY, credit card companies as some kind of beneficial lenders to society, if you get what I mean. These 'lenders' are predatory. It is their business to keep people in debt paying interest fees. You are NOT engaged in MICROFINANCE if you are giving people loans to pay off previous loans. That's the very definition of WHAT MICROFINANCE IS NOT.
I have 6 high school and college interns working for P2P and the high school interns start their summer internships tomorrow. Their first assignment is to read this article and hopefully they will learn through their work with P2P what REAL MICROFINANCE is. Here is a copy of the email that I sent to all of our interns today:
--
Hi Poverty2Prosperity.org Interns,

This has been a commonly promoted "con" of "microfinance" for many years now. I've seen this type of news since 2008 in which they conflate microfinance with traditional debt issuers. When you loan money to people to pay off a previous loan, you're not engaged in microfinance, you're engaged in predatory lending.

High school interns begin their summer internship tomorrow and will receive first assignments. But your very first assignment is to read this article and, hopefully, over the summer you will see how we do beneficial lending that is nothing like what is described in the article. Since 2008, real microfinance lending has made huge 'dents' in the poverty rates around the world:

Below is a list of percentages of those living in extreme poverty in 2008 vs 2024:
The World Bank defines Extreme Poverty as living below $3 per day – Adjusted for inflation and living costs between countries.
• Indonesia - 38% - 5.4%
• Vietnam – 17.6% - 1.6%
• Tajikistan – 24% - 6.1%
• Kyrgyzstan – 13.8% - 2.7%
• Burkina Faso – 67.2% - 42.1%
• Mali – 63.3% - 36.1%
• India – 34.6% - 5.25%
• Colombia 16.6% - 7.7%
• Peru 15.8% – 5.1%
• Paraguay – 7.9% - 2.1%
• Mexico – 10% - 2.3%
• Uganda – 63.6% - 60%
• USA 1% - 1.25%

You don't get these numbers above nor do you get a 98.92% repayment rate on lending by dooming people to eternal indebtedness. The Grameen bank, THE founders of microfinance, target 97%, so we are even ahead of that standard.

Summer interns, please let me know once you've read this article after which you'll receive your first assignment.

"Hundreds of billions in loans didn’t make a dent in global poverty"
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/hundreds-of-billions-in-loans-didn-t-make-a-dent-in-global-poverty/ar-AA25lnrZ

Thanks,

-Scott

p.s. The article above might as well be entitled 'hundreds of billions of credit cards issued didn't make a dent in global poverty' if you get what I mean... Those businesses are in the business of keeping people in debt, not lifting them out of poverty.

Microfinance aimed to foster prosperity but stoked hardship for those borrowers who took on debt they couldn’t afford.

05/28/2026

Poverty2Prosperity.org is plugging away every single month! In the last two days alone, we've made 334 loans as we make our way to our 75,000th loan made! [98.92% repayment rate on all loans made since 2008]
A good example of one of our loans in our brand new Repeat Borrowers Fund is below. And, it helps to explain that P2P is not just in the business of handing out money and collecting it; the in-country field partners that we work with also provide education and support to our borrower beyond simply being money handlers:
"Florinda joined six other Maya K’iche women benefit from monthly educational training, and bi-monthly healthcare services. Recent topics for the training were about business administration and the risks of over-indebtedness."
These women have successfully repaid a previous loan and want to continue to expand their work and increase family income:
"Florinda is a fifty-seven-year-old mother of seven grown children who range in age from twenty-two to thirty-six, and has twenty-two grandchildren! Because she was born into a poor family, she only has a second-grade education. Instead, she earned income for her family doing housework outside of her community in the department/state of Totonicapan. She is married to a businessman.

Thirty-five years ago, she opened a poultry business raising chickens and turkeys that she sells from her home and in the local market. Fifteen years ago, she opened a convenience store, as well as a variety store, where she sells baby and children’s clothing, bedclothing, plastic utensils and containers, and gifts. Florinda sells in various places, and her husband and daughter-in-law help from her home. She is requesting her third Kiva loan to buy products for the convenience store, including snacks and beverages. Her goals are to meet the demands of her customers and open more branches of the stores."

Please Share this story and help us bring more opportunities to more people around the world.
DONATIONS CAN BE MADE DIRECTLY VIA OUR WEBSITE:
https://Poverty2Prosperity.org

02/02/2026

2025 Year End Update!
Hi P2P Friends and Donors,

We have no current fundraiser asks, we just want to send you our annual update because good news is definitely appreciated by us and we have good news to share:

We had a good 2025 year of strong lending! We actually raised our repayment rate across our funds from 98.45% to 98.92% which is actually quite a big one-year improvement! Today also marks the 4 year old birthday of our wonderful Artisans Fund which support loans to artists and is one of our best performing funds. Ever wonder how each of our funds does in terms of repayments? Now you will know. This info comes from a recent 75 minute presentation on P2P & Microfinance that I was asked to give to students at Nueva High School in the SF Bay Area.

• India 100%
• Southeast Asia 100%
• Agriculture 99.9% (USA included)
• Climate 99.9%
• Artists 99.8% (1 field partner (Novica) has a 0.00% default rate for 13+ years)
• Sybil Gibson Memorial Fund 99.3% (Mostly Men!)
• Personal Housing 99.2%
• Women’s 99.1%
• General 99.1%*
2 funds: Main General 98.8% - #2 Fund Intern Led at 99.51% (way to go, young interns!)
• SOS 98.6% (saves loans from expiring and going unfunded)
• Youth 98.1%
• Education 97.8%
• Single Parents 97.6%

We have now made over 65,000 loans with more than 97% of ALL donations since 2008 going directly into our loan-making program thanks to our ultra-low overhead! Looking back over our annual progress announcements, I noticed that in 2011 we were pleased to announce that we had passed the 2,000 loan mark! We've come a long ways since then! In all, P2P has guided just over $9 million in microfinance lending in 95 different countries. Our top four countries are:

Philippines 7.23%
Tajikistan 5.60%
Peru 5.50%
Kenya 4.70%

Our next thoughts are now focused on perhaps an Africa Fund at some point this year if we can find a founding donor since our India and Southeast Asia funds have been performing so well.

We currently have four interns (2 from Nueva High School and 2 from Dartmouth College). They are doing real work for us and gaining meaningful knowledge and experience.

Thanks for your time reading our information. We respect your inbox and try to send only 3-4 emails per year.

-Scott

Scott Paterson
Founder
Poverty2Prosperity.org
Making 0% Interest Loans to the Working Poor since 2008!

01/15/2026

Here's some interesting lending stats from over 17 years of 0% loan-making at P2P. We have a Women's Fund and we also have a Donor-Advised "Perpetual Fund" (The Sybil Gibson Memorial Fund). Sybil's son made a founding donation of $5,000 to establish this DAF on P2P in his mom's memory. Across P2P funds, we've made 75% of our loans to women (with the Women's Fund affecting this clearly). When we talk about household financials, there are stats going back to the creation of the Womens' Fund (2014):
"On average, women reinvest 80% of their income in the well-being of their children and working women are more likely to educate their daughters than men."
However, Sybil loved her sons and 57% of the loans made in this Perpetual Fund are made to men.
The Great News. This account is actually outperforming the Women's Fund and we are finding that the male borrowers we select are repaying just as well. The repayment rates are SPECTACULAR in both:
Sybil Gibson Memorial Fund: 99.3% Repayment Rate
Women's Fund: 99.1% Repayment Rate
Donate to either! See a list of all of our funds! We'll be announcing are 2008-2025 repayment rates across all of our funds soon. The total repayment rate across all of our international funds and 65,000+ loans made is 98.92%

Zero percent interest loans to the working poor