Dear Friends,
As I reflect on all we accomplished last year with your support, despite a global pandemic and many challenges, I am overwhelmed with pride and gratitude. The increased generosity is, without a doubt, the very element allowing us to continue making incredible strides in our work to empower women in Guatemala.
I invite you to read through a collection of our greatest achievements of 2020 below, showcasing what your generosity allowed us to accomplish. We are also thrilled to share some very exciting news with you below! The achievements are categorized into three sections:
- Client Achievements: How we were Here for Her
- Staff Achievements: Taking care of the Friendship Bridge Family
- Institutional Achievements: What we achieved as a team!
As we embark on this new year of growth, entrepreneurship, and digital transformation at Friendship Bridge, I want to express my heartfelt gratitude to you for your support on this amazing journey.
Wishing health and happiness to you and your loved ones,
Karen Larson
President & CEO
BIG NEWS!
$1 million grant for new Entrepreneur Program
We are excited to share that Friendship Bridge has been awarded a $1 million grant from the Target Foundation, an exciting partnership that will allow us to implement our new Entrepreneur Program over the next three years, a significant component of our next Strategic Plan.
The Entrepreneur Program will allow us to directly serve a specific group of our clients that we call Leaders who manage “livelihood-sustaining enterprises.”
These businesswomen are highly motivated, have an economically-viable business model poised for growth, and are the drivers of economic development and new jobs in their communities.
Friendship Bridge is uniquely positioned and compelled to serve this segment of entrepreneurs. With this grant, we will have the resources needed to support them in “accelerating” their businesses with the right tools and internal infrastructure.
The program will grow significantly over the next 3 years, resulting in increased income for these entrepreneurs and job growth in Guatemala’s rural communities, where it is most needed.
Client Achievements
How we were Here for Her
- Served 29,294 clients and disbursed more than $14 million in new loans during 2020.
When the 1st case of COVID-19 was reported, we immediately implemented a phone strategy to educate our more than 22,000 clients about the virus and provide emotional support and small business solutions. - Identified that an estimated 30% of clients lost their business activity during the lock-down. Many clients showed incredible resilience and pivoted to a different activity with the help of our instructional videos and encouragement from our staff.
- Gave all clients a two-month grace period in April and May so they would not have to choose between their loan payment and buying food for their families.
- Executed an Emergency Food Relief Program, resulting in: $65,000+ in donations raised; Coordination of food purchasing and packaging; Disbursement of 3,300 food kits to clients and their families in rural areas of Guatemala; Effectively feeding more than 15,000 people facing severe hunger.
- Pivoted our Health for Life program to telehealth services so that clients could access health services with our nurses, even during the lockdowns.
- Served more than 9,900 clients with telehealth services.
- Qualified for the 3rd year in a row for the Citi Bank Award. Friendship Bridge artisan client Jacinta Xon Cali won 2nd place in the category of Entrepreneurs in Microcredit! Watch the Video
- Obtained outstanding results for client satisfaction and loyalty from our Client Survey conducted in the 4th quarter.
- Provided technical assistance to 81.8% of our agriculture clients supporting the improvement of their crop productivity and income, including identifying agricultural risk with the use of fertilizers and pesticides.
- Implemented 2 tomato field schools, which combines theoretical training and actual implementation in demonstration plots. With this technique, clients learn best agricultural practices in order to replicate them in their own crops.
- Handmade by Friendship Bridge sold more than $80,500 products created by 33 artisan clients and their families and employees. $65,000 went directly to our clients and 129 people were employed by them.
- Sold more than $10,500 worth of face masks, sourced from our own artisan clients and their families.
- Raised donations for an additional 442 handmade face masks for field staff in Guatemala.
- Sold nearly 5,000 Handmade by Friendship Bridge items through our online store.
- With the help of a generous donor, provided 24 clients with new sewing machines to support the growth of their businesses.
- Non-Formal Education continued through the year despite the pandemic, both through automated and direct calls from staff, despite not being able to meet physically in much of the country.
- Implemented a pilot of virtual Advanced Training sessions to teach clients how to develop new products through Facebook with much success. We plan to expand this in 2021.
Staff Achievements:
Taking care of the Friendship Bridge Family
- Ensured all staff had the tools they needed to work from home during the pandemic and implemented home office and COVID protocols successfully.
- Purchased and shipped throughout Guatemala more than $25,000 of COVID-19 protective and sanitizing equipment for all our offices. As an essential business in the country, we continued to staff all offices following the initial 2-month lock-down.
- Launched Mi Puente, an internal online communications system serving as the main means of collaboration for all employees, critical to sharing information during the pandemic.
- Initiated a new online learning platform to provide staff with training and professional development tools from our internal Friendship University. Achieved nearly 13,000 hours of employee training during the year.
Institutional Achievements
What we accomplished as a team!
- Even during this crisis, our portfolio quality continues to be one of the best in the Microfinance industry with full-year write-offs of less than 3%, client retention rate of 76.8%, and PAR>30 of 2.03%.
- Nearly 95% of our clients were making their loan repayments by the end of 2020, exceeding our expectations and allowing us to plan for the future with a clear path forward.
- Secured sufficient liquidity during the year to ensure operations would not be interrupted by raising nearly $800,000 in new capital and rolling over our $1.6 million Private Placement investment.
- Automated a variety of manual processes with the digital transformation of 5 major internal operating processes, originally planned over 3 years.
- Obtained the Great Place to Work certification for the 2nd year, positioning ourselves as one of the best companies to work for in Central America.
- Hosted 3 Virtual Insight Trips from Guatemala, allowing our U.S. supporters to virtually “visit” with our clients and staff, stay connected, and see the impact of our products and services.
- Published our 1st digital Annual Report in English and Spanish.
- Raised over $1 million in charitable contributions including donations, fundraising events, insight trips, and grants.
- Raised $154,500 with the support of 36 crowdfunders during our 6th Annual Health for Life Campaign.
- Raised $72,600 during our virtual Building Bridges Stay-at-Home Gala: Resiliency in the Face of Adversity.
- Achieved GuideStar’s Gold Seal of Transparency and the top rating of 4 Stars on Charity Navigator.
- Circles Volunteers placed $8,800 in orders at our online store, Handmade by Friendship Bridge.
