Latina entrepreneurs, who have been shown to face more obstacles than their white counterparts in accessing loans, will be helped by a new partnership with Grameen America.
The actress will mentor the organization's network of more than 150,000 women-run small businesses in Latino communities across the country.
Limitless Labs is Lopez's philanthropic project, which aims to help empower underserved communities, as well as Grameen's goal of providing 600,000 Latina entrepreneurs with 14 billion in loan capital and 6 million hours of financial literacy education by savesay savesay savesay is partnering to further Lopez's philanthropic project
Lopez will help Latina business owners understand the pathway to financial independence and literacy by joining Grameen's microloan program.
Lopez said in a statement that the partnership would build pathways to employment and leadership opportunities for Latinx people.
There is a different idea about how and what success is and how you do things in today's business world. Financial literacy and access to capital are the only things holding the Latino community back.
Over the past 10 years, the number of Latino-owned companies has grown at a faster rate than the number of white-owned companies.
Grameen America was founded in 2008 to provide loans, financial literacy training and credit-building to women living below the poverty line. Research shows that national banks are less likely to approve loans for Latino-owned businesses than they are for white-owned businesses. 20% of Latino-owned firms that applied for a national bank loan over $100,000 received funds, compared to 50% of white-owned businesses, according to one survey. Lopez told Forbes that her mother wanted to go to college but couldn't because she was too poor. Lopez said in a statement that the new partnership will give Latinas opportunities.
The report found that Grameen America is helping lift women out of poverty.