The startup cash provided is a seed capital grant ranging from US$180 to US$300 given to groups of three entrepreneurs who launch a business together.
[3] The positive impacts of the graduation approach and the rigorous evidence that supports it were highlighted by Nicholas Kristof in his 2015 New York Times article “The Power of Hope is Real.”[4] A randomized controlled trial published in 2022 by IDinsight found the Village Enterprise program had a positive and statistically significant impact on both indicators it measured: monthly consumption and net assets.
[7] A previous randomized controlled trial by Innovations for Poverty Action that was published in 2018 and written about in Vox found that the Village Enterprise program led to increases in consumption, assets, income, as well as improvements in nutrition and subjective wellbeing of business owners and their families.
Because of her impact at Village Enterprise, Calvi was honored with the President’s Award for the Advancement of the Common Good from Stanford University in 2023.
The randomized controlled trial conducted by IDinsight estimated the program would generate lifetime impacts of more than $21 million for communities, around four times the overall cost of the project.