Two Portland, Oregon businessmen established The Neo Fund in 2008 after a botched attempt at serving the poor just a year earlier. Determined to learn from those mistakes, our microlending program was born, and has been proven successful in Nicaragua and now Guatemala and India.

The NEO Fund’s mission is to help transform the lives of very low-income women and their families through microlending.

In the communities we serve, families suffer on many levels based on the extreme poverty that surrounds them. Nearly all of our borrowers are mothers. Almost half are single.

But we do more than just lend money. We want our borrowers to succeed. So we also provide free business training and coaching for women — from formalizing an actionable business plan to navigating inventory and pricing to planning for growth. Our program provides women with the opportunity to pursue entrepreneurial endeavors and generate family income which directly impacts the quality of life for their children and themselves!