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Empower women. Eliminate poverty.

Friendship Bridge is a 501(c)3 nonprofit creating opportunities to empower Guatemalan women to live a better life through microcredit, education, and health services.

Explore our mission

37,000+

clients served in 2025

$30.7 million

distributed in loans

93%

of clients reported increased income

100%

For women

The power of a small loan

Our client Leticia took out her first loan with Friendship Bridge to sell tamales. Today, she is the president of her Trust Bank, runs several businesses, and is saving to build a shop to sell cortes. See how Friendship Bridge’s credit and education programs helped her keep moving up.
Read Her Story
Leticia, a Friendship Bridge client, sits at a wooden table writing in a notebook.
Being a woman doesn’t mean hanging your head and saying only a man can do it. No, we women can get ahead. I’d tell every woman to take heart, even with a small business, because that’s how you start to move up.
— Leticia, Friendship Bridge client

What We Do

Friendship Bridge offers women in Guatemala the tools of microcredit, education, preventive health services, agricultural training, and business development. Together, these services are designed to meet women where they are and help them build financial independence and pursue their chosen opportunities.
Clients and a Facilitator gather around a table outdoors counting cash and preparing loan payments.

Microcredit

Small loans that help Indigenous Maya women in rural Guatemala grow their businesses, support their families, and create jobs.

Members of a Friendship Bridge Trust Bank smiling together at their meeting.

Non-Formal Education

Monthly educational sessions on business, health, women’s rights, and family, taught in clients’ own languages.

A Guatemalan woman receives a check up from a nurse.

Health for Life

Mobile clinics bring preventive care and health education to clients’ villages, delivered by female medical staff.

A Bridge to Success client sits at an industrial sewing machine.

Bridge to Success

Individual loans, advanced business training, and coaching for entrepreneurs ready to grow beyond group lending.

A Handmade by Friendship Bridge® client sits beside another woman at a table covered in handmade jewelry.

Handmade by Friendship Bridge®

Fair Trade Federation–verified program connecting artisans to markets, training, and income while honoring cultural traditions.

A Friendship Bridge client holds freshly-harvested tomatoes while standing in her farm.

Read our new 2026–2030 Strategic Plan

Building on the momentum of our prior five-year strategy, Friendship Bridge has grown in important ways. We have strengthened our core microfinance services, expanded access to education and preventive health, invested in technology, listened more intentionally to our clients, and deepened our understanding of what it truly takes to support women across many stages of life.
Strategic Plan
A Friendship Bridge client looks out from between a metal sheet and a bamboo fence, with colorful market goods in the background.

Donate »

Your gift plays a vital role in providing women in Guatemala with access to microcredit, education, and health services as they build better futures for themselves and their families.

Two Friendship Bridge staff members stand together outdoors, one holding a folder and clipboard.

Take Action »

Whether through a one-time gift, a monthly commitment, your time, or your advocacy, your support makes a meaningful impact on the women and communities we serve.

A Huipil Tote from Handmade by Friendship Bridge®.

Shop »

By shopping with our Handmade by Friendship Bridge® program, you empower low-income artisans in Guatemala to achieve financial stability and create lasting change for generations.

Featured content

A Guatemalan woman works at a juice stand.

Together Women Rise awards grant to strengthen Bridge to Success program

Since 2021, Friendship Bridge’s Bridge to Success program has been addressing the problem of the “missing middle” among women entrepreneurs in Guatemala: Those who have outgrown the group lending (Trust Bank) model, but are still deemed too risky to receive individual loans from traditional banks. Soon, the program will support even more women through its Mujer Avanza (Women Advance) pilot program, thanks to a grant from Together Women Rise.

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Three colorful handwoven pine needle baskets stacked against a wall, woven by artisans of the Handmade by Friendship Bridge® program.

Fremont Elementary Craft Fair 2026

Held 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at a public elementary school alongside other vendors, this craft fair is a way to introduce Friendship Bridge to a new audience of local families.
A blue Handmade by Friendship Bridge® table runner and a coiled pine needle placemat, set with a plate of bread, a latte on a pine needle coaster, and a striped cloth napkin.

Alternative Gift Fair

Shop a variety of gifts and goods from nonprofit vendors, where your purchases support worthy causes both locally and around the world. The Evergreen Friendship Circle’s Swittens (mittens made from wool sweaters) will be for sale, alongside other gift items
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A Guatemalan businesswoman stands in her hair salon.

Lissett: Fueling her Spark

Lissett wants her children to know they do not have to be like anyone else, and she is showing them how. With Bridge to Success, her Sololá salon has created six jobs and grown profits by 29%.
A Friendship Bridge client stands beside a tomato field and an informational sign about tomato cultivation methods.

Candelaria: Sowing Seeds of Change

Candelaria, with help from our Women's Agriculture & Training program, learns sustainable farming and shares how her knowledge is already changing her community.
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