At ACCION USA, we’re committed to bringing affordable microfinance solutions to small business owners who need them. We’re a dynamic organization that reaches deeply into the communities we serve and that has helped thousands of small business owners grow and thrive. We’re experts in microfinance—and in helping small business owners use it to build their businesses.
ACCION USA is part of ACCION International, a U.S.-based nonprofit organization operating globally, with the mission of giving people the financial tools they need to work their way out of poverty.
Our Mission
ACCION USA is a private, nonprofit organization that provides microloans and other financial services to low- and moderate-income entrepreneurs who are unable to access bank credit for their small businesses. With economic opportunity, these entrepreneurs—often minorities and women—can build assets, better provide for their families, and strengthen their communities.
Our History
ACCION USA's parent organization, ACCION International, began its work in economic development in 1961. In 1973, ACCION International made its first microloans in Recife, Brazil to men and women—street vendors, carpenters, seamstresses—who started their own very small businesses in order to survive. In the past decade alone, ACCION partners have disbursed $12.3 billion in microloans to 4.94 million borrowers around the world.
Expanding to serve small businesses in the U.S.
In 1991, due to ACCION International’s success and the clear need for microfinance in the U.S., ACCION started a U.S. pilot program in Brooklyn, NY to serve small businesses that lacked access to traditional sources of financing. Based on the success of this program, ACCION’s microfinancing network grew to include low-income communities in Chicago, New Mexico, San Diego, and Texas. Including ACCION USA’s offices in Atlanta, Boston, and Miami, the U.S. ACCION Network is the largest of its kind in the United States, having disbursed over $154 million in small business loans to more than 16,000 entrepreneurs.
In 1998, the U.S. ACCION Network received the Presidential Award for Excellence in Microenterprise Development for Program Innovation.
In 2001, ACCION was chosen as one of America’s 100 best charities by Worth magazine.
In 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2007 ACCION received Fast Company's Social Capitalist Award for “changing the world by using entrepreneurial genius to solve some of the most daunting social problems.”
In 2005, ACCION USA expanded its reach nationwide when it launched its Online Small Business Loan Application, enabling ACCION USA to offer its small business loans to entrepreneurs throughout the United States.
In 2006 ACCION USA launched Your Money and You, a multi-lingual financial literacy program geared towards low- and moderate-income entrepreneurs.
