At the risk of stating the obvious: Running a small business is a lot of work.
Entrepreneurs and staff—often pressed for time, money, and resources—devote most of their energy to keeping the lights on, leaving little time to address longer-term challenges. True for small and growing businesses everywhere, this is especially acute in rural communities where access to financing and training is scarce.
Over the past five years, Root Capital has worked with donor partners to provide one-time infusions of capital—what we call resilience grants—to agricultural businesses around the world. We sat down with Erick Sakwa, our Nairobi-based Impact and Advisory Manager, to learn more about the origin of this innovative program, what lessons he’s learned, and how small grants can help transform rural businesses and their communities.