The Saasu Foundation is not a registered charity, it is just our way of trying to help improve the world. We are using the Saasu Foundation name for all our efforts in this area and will eventually formally establish the foundation as a separate not-for-profit legal entity. It started back on the 18th October 2006 when Grant Young a Saasu founder first introduced the idea of Saasu supporting Kiva. Later Peter Cooper, a Saasu investor, recommended we should begin formalising these efforts into a strategy.

How Does It Work?

We aim to donate -

• 2% of profit
• 2% of product
• 2% of our time

Our mandate is still fairly open however intentions are very clear and global with an emphasis on sustainably-

• protecting and improving the earth
• reducing inequality and
• improving quality of life.

We like the idea of helping people to help themselves. We also like the idea of maximising the results of our contributions where the money is used more than just once. For now the most web visible contributions we are making can be seen on our page on kiva.org which is a great service anyone can donate to that helps residents of developing countries borrow money to start a business. The loan is usually completely repaid(!) and kiva.org then recycles it to someone else in need.

We applaud the work of Kiva.org and encourage our clients, partners and friends to support them.

Partners, Insiders and Customers supporting Kiva include
The 2by2by2.com education movement.
Grant Young’s social media company - Zumio.

Background, Progress & Next Steps

It all started with a few people with good intentions having some great ideas and went from there with Kiva fairly quickly.

Our initial loans were to entrepreneurs in Cambodia and Azerbiajan., the rate of repayment has been steady and our confidence in the model continues to improve (not least because any repayment at all is upside really because it can help more people).

Next steps are to consider advocating our approach and applying it more systemically with staff encouragement and donations of product to selected charities.

Please feel free to tell us what you think of our efforts and what you would like to see the Saasu Foundation achieve.