WHAT IS WOKAI HOW WOKAI WORKS WHY WOKAI EXISTS

WHO WE ARE
WHAT IS WOKAI
Wokai is a non-profit dedicated to alleviating poverty in
China through microfinance. Wokai’s approach uses the
internet to allow contributors around the world to provide
loan capital to borrowers in rural China, empowering them
to life themselves from poverty.
Wei Xiuxia - Recipient
Business: Breakfast stand
Loan Size: $600
Location: Inner Mongolia
Quickfact: “Opportunities to start a small
business are not just for the young”
Wei Xiuxia is a 59 year old woman
who took out a $600 loan to purchase
ingredients for her breakfast stand.
She plans to use the income from her
business to support her family and save
for her and her husband’s retirement.
Since our launch in November 2008, Wokai has raised over
USD$250,000 in loan capital, attracted 2,a00 contributors,
and empowered 340 borrowers to start small businesses.
Wokai has been featured in CNN, Time, MSNBC, CNBC,
Newsweek, CCTV, and Bloomberg. Looking into the future,
we aim to help raise over 2,000 people out of poverty over
the next two years.
Ze Zhou - Contributor
Profession: Engineer
Location: Brussels, Belgium
“I once helped my friend to pay online a
loan for some borrower. She got to know
Wokai from her friend who works for
Wokai. I very much like Wokai’s model
and believe Wokai has found an efficient
way to raise capital for impoverished
people who wants to make changes in
their lives.”
We have discovered that our model has enormous potential
to extend into other important areas of people’s lives.
After proving our model in microfinance, we plan to expand
to support other key areas of China’s nonprofit sector
including education, environment, healthcare, and rural
development, featuring projects such as a semester of high
school for a student in Ningxia Province, a barefoot doctor
in Tibet, and solar panels to provide electricity for a family
living in Xinjiang Province.
HOW WOKAI WORKS
OUR MODEL
1. Contribute 2. Track 3. Redistribute
1) Choose recipients to support and contribute online
2)
3)
Track repayments and progress over time through
regular Wokai updates
Redistribute your contribution to support somone new
once the recipient has fully repaid her loan.
Wokai makes these connections by working with local nonprofit
Field Partners who choose recipients, distribute
contributions, and monitor progress. Maintaining
transparency and oversight is crucial in any developing
country. Wokai therefore works hands-on with Field Partners
to ensure that each dollar gets to the end recipient and
back.
OUR IMPACT
RAISING CAPITAL TO EMPOWER THOSE IN NEED
Wokai raises capital for recipients in China, empowering
them to fulfill their possibility and lift themselves from
poverty
BUILDING A COMMUNITY OF CHANGEMAKERS
Wokai builds a global community of individuals and
institutions taking action to build a better China
PROMOTING TRANSPARENCY
Wokai creates an informational resource on the non-profit
sector in China and every institution with whom it works. By
auditing institutions and tracking every dollar contributed
to an institution, Wokai is developing the transparency
crucial for inspiring institutional efficiency and regulatory
change.
WHY WOKAI EXISTS
WHY CHINA
Over the past 25 years, China’s economic boom has brought
wealth to many, but 200 million people still live on less than
$1.25 a day. Inequalities have developed, dividing urban
and rural areas and limiting access to financial services,
healthcare, educational opportunity, and environmental
protection.
In China...
800,000,000
500,000,000
200,000,000
3.3
1.5
.013
WHY MICROFINANCE
people lack adequate access to credit
people lack access to safe drinking
water
people live on less than $1.25/day
times is the rural-urban income gap
dollars is the daily income of rural
inhabitant
dollars is the amount spent per person on
healthcare for every $1 spent by the US
Microfinance offers one of the best solutions to alleviating
poverty, decreasing inequality, and addressing China’s social
problems. Microfinance differs from traditional poverty
alleviation methods in that it empowers beneficiaries
to help themselves. Loans enable people to start small
businesses, increase their incomes, pay for important needs
such as their children’s education and healthcare, grow
their businesses, and, eventually, lift their entire family out
of poverty. This creates a positive cycle of change as loans
are recycled year after year to support new recipients.
Wei Xiuxia - Recipient
Business: Breakfast stand
Loan Size: $600
Location: Inner Mongolia
Quickfact: “Opportunities to start a small
business are not just for the young”
Wei Xiuxia is a 59 year old woman
who took out a $600 loan to purchase
ingredients for her breakfast stand.
She plans to use the income from her
business to support her family and save
for her and her husband’s retirement.

RECIPIENTS
Zhang Rong - Borrower
Business: Hot Pot Stand
Loan Size: $900
Location: Sichuan
Quickfact: “My hot pot stand hosts thirty
different kinds of meat and vegetables”
Zhang Rong started her hot pot stand three
years ago to save up to send her youngest son
to school. Over the past three years, Zhang
Rong has expanded her business to include
drinks and snacks. In the future, she hopes to
begin selling dumplings and desserts.
Typical Wokai recipients are are female rural inhabitants,
living on less than $1.25/day. They use their microfinance
loans to start small businesses, ranging from dairy businesses
in rural grasslands to managing food stands in city centers.
With the income from their businesses, they are able to
repay their loans over time, build their businesses, and
earn income to lift themselves and their families out of
poverty.
FIELD PARTNERS
WHO WOKAI SUPPORTS
CZWSDA - Field Partner
Established: 1998
Total Recipients Served: 3,400
Wokai Recipeints: 45
Location: Chifeng, Inner Mongolia
CZWSDA was established in 1998 in
collaboration between the UN Development
Programme and All China Women’s Federation.
Since its inception, CZWSDA has been a
pioneer in China microfinance, serving a total
of over 17,000 women and collaborating with
international organizations including the
Grameen Foundation and World Bank..
Wokai selects Field Partners that have 95% and above ontime
repayment rates, transparent management systems,
and high-impact approaches to alleviating poverty. Wokai’s
Investment Committee composed of leading microfinance
authorities has helped Wokai’s due-diligence team develop
a comprehensive on-site evaluation system for potential
partners as well as consistent onsite and offsite monitoring
systems to ensure that all Wokai funds are getting the
chosen recipients and back.
Wokai currently works with two Field Partners in Inner
Mongolia and Sichuan, both of which were established in
collaboration with United Nations Development Programme
in the 90’s.
GET INVOLVED
SUPPORT A LOAN
Log onto www.wokai.org to read about Wokai borrowers
and make a contribution to support someone to start a
small business and lift themselves from poverty.
CONTRIBUTE TO OUR ORGANIZATION
Wokai depends on the generous support from people
like you to cover the costs of training, evaluating, and
coordinating with our Field Partners in rural China,
improving our website, and paying staff salaries and rent.
If you are interested in making a contribution to support
Wokai’s operations, you can either make a donation on
www.wokai.org or send your donation by mail to our US
office at: 653 11th Street, Oakland, CA 94607.
SPREAD THE WORD
Wokai depends on people like you to build its contributor
community. If you want to help Wokai and its cause
succeed, please spread the word about Wokai to your
family and friends by sending an email, joining Wokai’s
Facebook fan page, blogging about Wokai online, or sitting
down in person and chatting about Wokai the old fashioned
way. For more ideas on how to get involved please visit our
website at: www.wokai.org.
JOIN A CHAPTER
Wokai relies on a Chapter network to reach out to the
public. Wokai Chapters consist of volunteers who are
responsible for organizing and executing promotional events
about Wokai. Thus far, Wokai has established Chapters in
New York, San Francisco, Seattle, and Beijing. If you are
interested in becoming a part of a Wokai Chapter, please
visit our website to apply.
BECOME A VOLUNTEER TRANSLATOR
Do you have a native level of written English, fluency in
written Chinese, and are interested in volunteering two
hours or more a week? If so, you can help Wokai’s efforts by
becoming a volunteer translator. Please email us at: info@
wokai.org to get involved.