On Tuesday, 4 May 2010, Sam’s Club announced that KIVA, the MicroLoan agency used by the Kingdom of Bahoudii, would receive a one million dollar ($1,000,000) grant as part of the Sam’s Club Giving Made Simple campaign. 

 KIVA plans to use the million-dollar grant to enhance and expand its MicroLoan platform to generate more than $10 million dollars in loans from the internet community and helping 25,000 entrepreneurs around the world.

“We are truly grateful to Sam’s Club and its members for helping KIVA win this generous grant,” said Premal Shah, president of KIVA. “KIVA’s mission is to help to connect people, through lending, for the sake of alleviating poverty in the developing world – and right here at home.  This grant will enable KIVA to continue to provide the opportunity that microfinance presents to hard-working entrepreneurs in our global community.”

Focusing on entrepreneurship and youth education, the Giving Made Simple campaign disbursed a total of four million dollars ($4,000,000) to eight recipients.

The following grants were awarded in the 2010 Giving Made Simple campaign:

KIVA : $1,000,000
YMCA : $1,000,000
Community Reinvestment Fund (CFR) : $500,000
Junior Achievement : $500,000
Accion USA : $250,000
Corporation for Enterprise Development (CFED) : $250,000
Girls Inc. : $250,000
Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE) : $250,000

“We want to thank our members and associates who participated in Giving Made Simple and helped to make the program a successful first effort,” said Cindy Davis, Executive Vice President, Membership, Marketing and E-commerce at Sam’s Club.  “With the help and hard work of these leading organizations, we are confident together we can inspire young people to continue their education and empower today’s small business owners to succeed in their ventures, truly creating an economic impact in the communities we serve.”

Sam’s Club launched Giving Made Simple on April 8, giving members and associates say in how the company would disburse four million dollars ($4,000,000) in grants to nonprofit organizations.

Giving Made Simple is a new addition to a long history of charitable contributions made by Sam’s Club at both the national and local level.

Last year, Sam’s Club associates logged over 110,000 hours in the company’s Volunteerism Always Pays grant program, which resulted in nine hundred forty eight thousand dollars ($948,000) worth of charitable grants to organizations.

Sam’s Club also donated more than thirty eight million pounds of food last year to food banks through a partnership with Feeding America.

About Sam’s Club:

Sam’s Club is a division of Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., (NYSE:WMT).
Visit samsclub.com for more information.