Transform lives through economic empowerment.
Eradicate extreme poverty by restoring human dignity and creating strong, sustainable communities.
The Biblical Parable of the Talents and the call of Jesus to minister good news to the poor.
Five Talents is a micro-enterprise development organization that helps families living in extreme poverty to save, invest, and develop small businesses.
Five Talents began in 1998 as a means for churches to respond wisely to the realities of global poverty through transformational development,established based on the call of Jesus to minister good news to the poor and the Biblical Parable of the Talents (which teaches that we should all work to multiply the resources we are given). Born at the Lambeth Conference, the Archbishop of Canterbury became Five Talents’ first advocate and supporter. Encouraged by church leaders from around the world, the founders worked to guard the dignity of the poor while assisting them to create jobs and opportunities to lift themselves out of poverty.
Our first programs began in 2000 in the Philippines with a focus on the formation of savings and loans groups and training for microenterprise development. Through patient investment and working to build the capacity of local partners, Five Talents' impact has multiplied across the global south.
“Rather than try to combat poverty from the top down, microenterprise fights poverty from the ground up by working directly to change the lives of those most affected by poverty.”
— Bishop Simon Chiwanga, founder from Tanzania
As programs have graduated and become self-sustaining and replicating, Five Talents has expanded to pioneer work in countries in Africa, Asia, and South America. In 2006, Five Talents UK was established, helping to catalyze growth of developing programs in Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda. The Kenya program itself became a model for financial inclusion across Africa. In 2016, Five Talents Kenya was officially established.
Today, thousands of churches around the world host and support our programs. Five Talents continues to serve communities in some of the most vulnerable, remote, and rural areas in the world — places not served by banks or commercial microfinance agencies. Our work has inspired churches of all denominations, as well as individuals and organizations of all religious and non-religious backgrounds, to join with us in fighting poverty and empowering the poor. Our U.S. office is headquartered in Falls Church, Virginia, just outside of Washington, D.C.
Since its inception, Five Talents has worked to build the capacity of indigenous organizations in 21 countries, providing business skills training, spiritual formation, and access to financial services to over 235,000 individuals.
Through our programs, members and their families have access to savings and loan associations and community banks that have provided over half a million loans to develop micro-enterprises. The businesses supported by these loans have provided jobs and opportunities that have impacted more than 1.4 million beneficiaries.
Click here to meet some of the women and men who’ve shaped Five Talents over the past two decades of empowering the poor.
Based on the Parable of the Talents (Matthew 25:14-30), Five Talents works to improve the socioeconomic status of those living in extreme poverty through personal responsibility, faithful stewardship, service to community, and respect for the dignity of all human beings.
We are a micro-enterprise development organization motivated by God’s love. Alongside literacy, savings, and entrepreneurship training, we offer the spiritual support necessary for transformed lives. Each entrepreneur learns about God’s love, intention, and desire to transform them and their community.
We are committed to serving the poorest and most marginalized communities, otherwise underserved by the commercial microfinance industry, to achieve real and lasting economic transformation.
We work through collaborative relationships with local churches and other partners who share the same Christian motivations and foundation, and who are recommended by or affiliated with an Anglican Province or Diocese.
We are committed to excellence in our work and relationships with our partners, to honesty and transparency, sound stewardship, safeguarding, and social responsibility.
We provide training and resources to program participants regardless of ethnicity, political affiliation, or religion.
We focus on opportunities to establish replicable programs that can become self-sustaining and achieve meaningful scale.
Over the years, we’ve discovered a wealth of treasure in the Parable of the Talents. That’s why we’ve prepared this free guide to Matthew 25, featuring reflections from pastors and Christian leaders.
Free Download
