Visa Empowers – Visa, The Visa Foundation & Kiva

Visa, a world leader in digital payments, and Visa Foundation partnered with Kiva, a social impact organization with a mission to expand financial access for underserved communities, on “Visa Empowers” – a $1.5 million, five-year employee engagement campaign to empower small and microbusinesses to thrive.
The idea: allow every employee to direct a $50 micro-loan (funded by Visa Foundation) to an entrepreneur on the Kiva platform. From farmers in Latin America to women-led businesses in Africa to food stalls in Asia, the Kiva platform offers a wide variety of impact from which Visa employees can choose.
Visa launched an immersive, multi-channel internal campaign that was global and targeted, championed by executives and driven by grassroots ambassadors in offices around the world.
The result was an astounding 82% participation among 21,000 global employees in year 2, with 38,000 small businesses supported over two years. The program exceeded Visa’s goals and became one of the most successful campaigns in Kiva’s history.