Seed Effect, a division of e3 Partners, is a 501(c)(3) non-profit, faith-based, ‘Credit with Education’ microfinance initiative. Our mission is to plant the seeds that overcome physical and spiritual poverty by providing access to microloans, education, and spiritual discipleship in marginalized communities around the world.
Who is e3 Partners?
Since e3 Partners was established as a 501(c)(3) non-profit in 1987, God has used our innovative approach to church multiplication of Equipping believers to Evangelize the lost and Establish new churches to introduce over 1 million people to Christ and plant over 12,000 churches in more than 25 countries worldwide.
Why microfinance?
In response to the overwhelming physical needs of the people we serve as we work in some of the most marginalized places in the world, e3 Partners has launched Seed Effect. Seed Effect is a unique microfinance institution (MFI) that provides the poor with access to credit and education through our Seed Loan Program, and spiritual discipleship through a direct partnership with the local church.
Over the last 30 years, microfinance has gained recognition for being an effective tool to combat poverty and promote economic change in impoverished communities. Microfinance, an industry that boasts repayments rates of around 97%, finds its success in addressing the concept that "the poor stay poor, not because they are lazy, but because they have no access to capital". By providing the working poor with the capital needed (as little as $50!) to grow their businesses and generate a higher income, we can empower them, without creating dependency, to provide food, clean water, school fees, and healthcare for their families and overcome the cycle of physical poverty. And, it doesn’t stop there. Through the interest earned and the repayment of these loans, we can continue to invest in more lives with new seed loans.
Additionally, as poverty can often be compounded by more than just lack of financial resources, microfinance programs provide the perfect platform to offer other services, such as education and spiritual discipleship, known as ‘Microcredit Plus Services’, to these communities. Seed Effect issues individual loans within a group lending methodology to promote accountability and community while providing a platform for education at weekly group meetings. By offering these services, Seed Effect as a ‘Credit with Education’ MFI, can also plant the seeds that overcome spiritual poverty by promoting community, accountability, education, and Biblical truth.
Supply and Demand
Even though microfinance has been changing lives for decades, the demand for microcredit to the poor is still largely unmet. There are almost 3 billion people in the world living on less than $2 per day and the World Bank estimates that current microfinance efforts are only reaching 4% of this demand. In addition, very few of these clients are being serviced by Christian MFIs, and of those Christian MFIs even fewer are able to successfully implement programs that truly spiritually impact their clients. There’s a need and we have an innovative solution.
The “Triple Bottom Line”
As a faith-based, ‘Credit with Education’ microfinance institution, Seed Effect differs from most MFIs, as we seek a “Triple Bottom Line”- to achieve organizational financial self-sustainability, social impact AND spiritual transformation. To achieve financial self-sustainability, Seed Effect invests donated, tax-deductible funds into each site and customizes our loan products and program to meet the needs of our clients, promote positive client impact, and a high repayment rate. In additon, Seed Effect recycles the repayment and interest earned from each loan to cover operating expenses and fund new loans for new and existing clients. In essence, one donation makes a lasting impact on many lives as we invest together in the lives of the poor.
To attain measurable social impact and to truly reach the poor, Seed Effect establishes sites in areas that are calculably impoverished and employs industry accepted social performance measurement (SPM) tools to measure and track our clients’ progression out of poverty. Additionally, we use our loan program as a platform to provide access to education, promoting such topics as small business management and stewardship, in order to more fully impact poverty in the lives of our clients.
And to promote spiritual transformation, Seed Effect uniquely utilizes the relationship that e3 Partners has built with thousands of local churches in 25 countries to form partnerships between the MFI and the church. Seed Effect employs a Spiritual Integration Supervisor (SIS) to serve as the liaison between the MFI and the local church and to work alongside the Loan Officers (LOs) and local church Discipleship Groups to share the Gospel, mentor clients, and promote spiritual growth. Although the majority of Seed Effect’s clients are women, Seed Effect does not discriminate based upon gender, religious affiliation or race, and specifically does not require our clients to profess any particular religious beliefs to be accepted to the program or to remain a participant in our Seed Loan Program. Through this innovative partnership and approach, we not only have the ability to share Jesus with the lost and encourage fellow believers, but we can also connect them to the local church for continued spiritual growth.
Seed Effect in South Sudan
In an effort to reach the unreached and work in one of the most underdeveloped areas in the world, Seed Effect is currently launching our first microfinance site in Kajo Keji, South Sudan (headquarters of e3 Sudan).
In 2005, the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) was signed, bringing a stop to one of the longest and bloodiest conflicts of the 20th century. For decades, the conflict between the North and the South ravaged the country, leaving 2 million people dead and over 4 million southern Sudanese displaced. The destruction from this war, prompted the UNDP to rank Sudan one of the most underdeveloped countries in the world in 2006, further estimating that 90% of the population in the south was living on less than $1 a day. Since this report, little has been done to bring development and empowerment to the region as many southern Sudanese still lack access to adequate health care, food and clean water, sufficient educational opportunities for their children, and desperately struggle to provide for their families.
Seed Effect now brings hope to these southern Sudanese families by promoting empowerment, economic development, education, and spiritual discipleship through our Seed Loan Program.
Seed Effect is an agent of change, a modest force that generates a significant effect. You invest with us and together we plant the seeds that overcome poverty- spiritual and physical. It starts with a life, impacts a family, changes a community... Join us? Plant a Seed. Be a part of the Seed Effect.
Posts
