Fundación Campo is an independent non-profit organization based in El Salvador. It aims to empower the economically active poor and small entrepreneurs in rural communities by providing inclusive financial and community development services.

Fundación Campo began in 1997 as social reinsertion project launched after the end of the brutal 12-year Salvadoran civil war.  At the time its founding, Fundación Campo was established as a trust fund administrator for CARE in El Salvador. In 2004 CARE donated the trust fund to Fundación Campo, and since then Fundación Campo has operated independently. Fundación Campo has no political or religious affiliations. As of the end of 2010, Fundación Campo has a portfolio of $8.8 milllion in outstanding loans, reaching 7,538 people.

Fundación Campo operates through Associations of Communal Development (Asociaciones de Desarrollo Comunal or ADESCOs). ADESCOs are community-based organizations, governed and administered by the people who live in each community. Fundación Campo’s methodology leverages the ADESCOs through the creation of Communal Credit Committees (CCC). A CCC is made up of members of the corresponding ADESCO, living in each community. The CCC completes the first steps of a loan application and provides an evaluation of the credit worthiness of the prospective client. This way Fundación Campo taps into the knowledge that the members of a community have about their neighbors, friends, and family who want to become a client of the institution.

Overall Mission: Promote the development of rural communities, and improve the quality of life of the people that live within them.

Mission of the Microfinance Unit: Provide financial leverage for the development of rural communities

Mission of the Community Development Unit: Be a catalyst for the socio-economic organization of rural communities and the empowerment of their people.

Recently, Fundación Campo established a Community Development Unit (UNDESCO) as part of its operations. The UNDESCO works directly with communities to provide technical assistance, training and capacity building, improve health, education and access to basic services and infrastructure, and drive the development of projects that strengthen the local economy.

Fundación Campo’s deep commitment to excellence is evidenced by (i) the management and channeling of approximately US$2 million for the development of 50 projects that have benefited 3,000 families directly, and indirectly more than 5,000, improving the productivity, education, health and environmental conditions of rural families; (ii) the recognition granted by the Microfinance Information Exchange by granting, during four consecutive years, the certificate of transparency, quality, and trustworthiness of the microfinance information; and (iii) the recognition granted by the Multi-Sector Investment Bank for the excellent productivity in the placement of loans in communities of extreme poverty.

Fundación Campo is interested in using Kiva funding primarily for subsistence agriculture loans. The organization plans to use the added savings resulting from Kiva’s 0% interest funding to further develop the UNDESCO and its innovative wraparound services, including educational and technical assistance programs, a loan officer training school, and a value chain pilot project that is currently being developed with local producers’ associations.