by Jim Oakes

Founded in 1998 at Truro Anglican Church in Virginia, Five Talents began as a way to empower the global church to respond to the realities of extreme poverty, allowing them to participate in God's redemptive work of renewal in the world. Five Talents is based on Jesus's call to minister good news to the poor and the Parable of the Talents. Encouraged by church leaders, our founders worked to guard the dignity of people in war-torn, remote, and under-resourced communities in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, while supporting them in lifting themselves out of poverty. Since our founding, Five Talents has impacted the lives of 1.4 million brave, creative people by equipping heads of families with the literacy and business skills needed to start small businesses.

We believe a straightforward, sustainable, and scalable idea can change the world. Women are adopting it fastest. When you invest in the future of the men and women in Five Talents' programs, the impact of each dollar is multiplied about 10 times, sometimes even more, as investments reverberate through families, small businesses, churches, and communities. We know, because we rigorously monitor and evaluate our programs, that when Five Talents puts a dollar behind the activities of a Savings Group in Asia, Latin America, or Africa, that dollar is multiplied because:

• Members create new businesses

• They share their profits with family members and hire new employees, so that they can flourish

• Economic activity grows in communities, spurring new and more just circulation of money and resources

For more information, please visit www.fivetalents.org.

Jim Oakes is the Past Chair of the Board and Acting Secretary for Five Talents.