Fundación Paraguaya
Organization Details
Fundación Paraguaya (FP), founded in 1985, is a self-sustaining, non-profit social
enterprise based in Asunción, Paraguay. Its mission is to develop and implement
practical, innovative, and sustainable solutions to eliminate poverty and create decent
living conditions for every family, with the vision that its work in Paraguay is an
example and inspiration to others around the world. It seeks to be financially self-
sustaining: it generally runs a small surplus in its microfinance program, which it
reinvests in its other social programs; these other programs also generate resources to
cover operating costs.
Support Needs
We’re looking to improve our impact measurement with:
AccountingData AnalysisMultimediaNonprofit Operations andProduct Design
Impact Story
With more 450 staff, 25 offices, and three financially self-sustaining agricultural
schools in Paraguay, Fundación Paraguaya seeks to accomplish those goals through an
integrated strategy which offers 85,000+ clients:
1. the Poverty Stoplight, a self-evaluation tool which measures poverty according
to 50 indicators, allowing its clients to take stock of their poverty-related
problems and design their own “life maps” for overcoming them;
2. Microfinance, Micro franchises and Micro insurance to increase clients’ income
and reduce their financial risks, and partnerships with other specialized
institutions to provide clients with services to address their other poverty-
related problems (85,000 total clients with over 87% women, 39,000 women in
village banks);
3. Entrepreneurial Education, business management skills and mentoring to help
clients and their children find jobs and/or create their own employment
(230,000 served to date); and
4. Self-sustaining Agricultural Schools, in which, on-campus enterprises serve the
dual purpose of: (a) training students in a business environment, transforming
them into independent rural entrepreneurs, and (b) generating income to help
sustain the schools (3 schools in Paraguay and 5 in Tanzania).
This integrated strategy produces a geo-referenced map of clients’ needs, and
channels resources where they are needed most and, most importantly, empowers
clients and their families to be the main protagonists in their victories over poverty.
Fundación Paraguaya is internationally recognized for social innovation, it has received
numerous awards for innovation in education and youth employment, including:
World Innovation Summit for Education (WISE) Prize (2009), GDN/Japanese Ministry of
Finance prize for Most Innovative Development Project (2009), Nestlé Shared Value
Prize (2012), WTO Good Practice in Youth Employment (2014), VISIONARIES Juscelino
Kubitschek (2018), Viva Schmidheiny Prize by Avina (2020).
