Today was a big day at the Thriive office!
We held the first information session for potential applicants to discuss about Thriive and the application process. Rachael and I are both working on the Thriive project. We just opened up applications for Thriive for 2011! Thriive is a unique Equipment Capital Loan program to benefit small growing businesses. In brief, ThriiveCapital Loans are loans that are delivered in the form of equipment (not money) to businesses. The businesses pay back the Loan in the form of either donating goods/services that the business produces, or providing vocational education training to those in need (referred to as the “Charitable Paybacks”). Further information about Thriive is set out below.
We had a great turn out to the information session and were thrilled to have such a diverse range of applicants in attendance – from bakeries to construction companies to farmers. It was great to see our marketing efforts paying off – some business owners had learned about Thriive through TV, others through the radio and the newspaper. It was not too long ago that the Hue Thriive Team were drafting the content of the marketing efforts and determining our marketing strategy!
An amazing thing happened in the information session today– in explaining the Charitable Paybacks, we mentioned how we had visited a school that had needed chairs for its students, but were unable to afford to purchase such chairs – such schools form the group of Recipients of the Charitable Paybacks. At the end of the information session, two businesses owners approached our team and said that they would like to donate money to the school, so that the school would finally have chairs it needs for its students. It’s really heart-warming to see the spirit of giving alive in Hue City, and to realize that we helped to make a connection between the school and businesses. In particular, it felt rewarding to see that we helped to make an impact on the school’s situation. Community empowerment and charitable giving/philanthropy are the ultimate goals of the Thriive program!
Everyday, we have applicants coming to our office to ask about Thriive, which is really motivating for us. Hopefully, by the time that the Applications close (22 August 2011), we will have a great and diverse candidate pool from which to choose the Thriive Businesses of 2011!
P. S. More information on Thriive is set out below.
- Traci & Rachael
[Linh kicking off the presentation at the information session]
Thriive program:
FHF and Thriive Organization has partnered to launch the second year of Thriive in 2011. Thriive was first launched in Hue City, Vietnam in August 2010.
Thriive aims to support small and growing businesses by offering interest-free equipments based loans that are to be paid back with charitable repayments to the community up to the value of the ThriiveCapital Loan.
The goal of Thriive is to:
- Increase the number of employees;
- Promote business growth; and
- Provide a meaningful charity payback to the community.
ThriiveCapital Loans are paid back with charitable repayments, which may take the form of one or a combination of three methods:
- Products – i.e., a tailor that obtains a new sewing machine valued at 2,000,000 VND repays the ThriiveCapital Loan in uniforms valued at 2,000,000 VND that are to be donated to the disadvantaged students of a local school.
- Services – i.e., a dentist obtains a high-tech dental chair and x-ray equipment, he/she then repays the ThriiveCapital Loan with free dental exams and dental work to underprivileged women and children.
- Job/vocational training – i.e., the owner of a tailoring business receives a new sewing machine and repays the ThriiveCapital Loan by providing vocational training on sewing skills for local youth and unemployed individuals with the potential to offer jobs to these individuals upon completion of the training.
We use the retail value of the charitable goods, services and/or vocational training in order to calculate the repayments of the ThriiveCapital Loans.
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