Our Mission
Making Cents is committed to building a legacy of improved skills and economic opportunities at the individual, community and global levels.
About Making Cents
Making Cents International is a social enterprise based in Washington, D.C. that provides specialized technical services and curricula that enable entrepreneurs and enterprises to participate in profitable markets; financial institutions to serve new populations; and individuals to obtain meaningful work.
Since 1999, Making Cents has partnered with more than 4,000 local organizations in over 50 countries. Our global reach includes programmatic work in Africa, the Americas and Caribbean, Asia, Europe, and the Middle East.
Our services address the needs of a range of populations that include youth, women, and vulnerable populations, and are based on an appreciation of client assets and market needs, local capacity building, and a desire to achieve greater sustainable results. As part of our social mission, we also build and strengthen youth economic opportunities by creating learning opportunities and networks that result in stronger partnerships, programs, and policies supporting young entrepreneurs.
Technical Services
Making Cents has worked in over 30 states in the United States and in over 45 countries with a range of organizations to build the financial and non-financial capabilities of youth and adults around the world.
From needs assessment to program design and implementation to monitoring and evaluation, Making Cents' technical consulting services are designed to ensure that the institutions in emerging markets retain the know-how and tools required to plan, implement, adapt and deliver effective services to their local clients over the long-term.
Off-the-Shelf Curriculum
Making Cents offers entrepreneurship, financial literacy and business skills training materials, which are available in over 25 languages for a range of literacy and learning levels, and are all steeped in experiential learning methodology.
All curricula are available off-the-shelf or can be fully customized in content, graphics and language. These are all accompanied by our highly regarded training-of-trainer (TOT) courses.
Building the Youth Enterprise & Livelihoods Development Field
Making Cents believes that youth are important assets in the development of prosperous, sustainable communities. As such, we have dedicated ourselves to developing the field of youth enterprise and livelihoods development in order to stimulate, grow, support, and champion the entrepreneurial spirit and financial literacy skills of the world’s youth.
Since 2007, Making Cents has organized an annual Global Youth Economic Opportunities Conference to build and strengthen the nascent sector of youth enterprise and livelihoods while supporting programs and policies achieving greater impact in the field. In just five years, this participatory and demand-driven learning event has become the “go-to” learning platform for the world's leading professionals working to increase and improve economic opportunities for young people. At this year's 5th anniversary conference, we welcome you to join 400 participants from over 60 countries to share lessons learned, promising practices, and innovative ideas through technical workshops, engaging plenary sessions, and interactive networking. The result? Higher-impact programming, breakthrough solutions, and proven approaches.
Making Cents synthesizes the lessons learned, promising practices, and programmatic examples shared at the conference to produce its annual “State of the Field” publication. Previous editions have been downloaded over 2,000 times in more than 110 countries.
This information also informs the development and implementation of Making Cents’ youth programs, such as the Youth-Inclusive Financial Services Linkage Program as well as yfslink.org, the new "go-to" site for and by the youth-inclusive financial services community.
How can we help you meet your project’s goals and objectives through our curriculum and technical consulting services?
Contact us!