Five Talents

This article is about the charitable organization. For the Christian parable, see Parable of the talents or minas.

Five Talents is a Christian Microfinance charity. It provides loan capital and savings opportunities to groups of entrepreneurs, and also offers business training and mentoring to clients.

Organization

Five Talents has offices in Washington DC and London, and partners with organisations in 12 countries around the world.

Five Talents was founded at the Lambeth Conference of Anglican Church leaders in 1998^[1] as 'a long term response to help the poor in developing countries based on need not creed'.^[2]

The patron is the Archbishop of Canterbury, currently Justin Welby.

Projects

Five Talents currently works in 12 developing countries, which are: Burundi, Bolivia, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Myanmar, Peru, Philippines, Sudan, South Sudan, Tanzania, and Uganda ^[3]

In the Media

In November 2012, the work of Five Talents was favorably highlighted in an online article referencing industry best practice in the faith based micro finance community. http://social.yourstory.in/2012/11/five-talents-sustainable-enterprise-meets-religion/

In April 2012 Five Talents US announced the hiring of a new CEO, Sonia Patterson, who has 15 years of entrepreneurial experience in developing business, non-governmental and community relations in the United States, Latin America, the Middle East, Africa and Asia.^[4]

In December 2011 the work of Five Talents was highlighted on the Huffington Post website in an article by Carolyn Sharp, a professor at Yale University.^[5]

In May 2010 Five Talents was featured on the BBC's monthly television charity appeal programme 'Lifeline'.^[6] A short film starring Sandi Toksvig was broadcast on BBC1 and explored the impact of Five Talents on the poor in Tanzania.

Awards

Five Talents US received a $10,000 grant in June 2012 from the Giving of Life Foundation, following a major online social media campaign in which the organization finished 9th overall in Giving of Life's online voting competition.^[7]

Five Talents US was named "one of the best" non-profits for 2013-2014 by Greater Washington's Catalogue for Philanthropy, According to the Catalogue, "115 reviewers from foundations, corporations, corporate giving programs, giving circles,the philanthropic advisory community, and peer nonprofits, evaluate applicants for distinction, merit, and impact." ^[8]

Five Talents UK won the 2011 Award from Advocates for International Development (A4ID) for the best Development Partner.^[9] This award celebrates the outstanding achievements of legal professionals and the development organisations they have worked with in tackling extreme poverty and meeting the UN’s Millennium Development Goals.

Group Lending Model

Main article: Solidarity lending

Five Talents operates using a group lending model. Loans are given to the group as a whole and so if one person has difficulty in repaying, the others in the group will have to cover their repayments. This system aims to reach those who are unable to take out commercial loans due to lack of collateral. Typically groups will consist of between 5 and 10 people.^[10] The majority of borrowers are women.