Smith and Thurman explain how microcredit-loans as little as $50-help people to start small and home-based businesses. In taking charge of their own destiny, these businessmen and -women are given the dignity to improve their own lives and pay back the loan, instead of simply accepting charity. A Billion Bootstraps also explores how microcredit can reverse poverty permanently and shows how this charitable giving can produce astonishing returns across the globe.

“A Billion Bootstraps shows how successful people in the West can use sound business practices to create economic opportunities for poor families in other parts of the world.”-Sir John Templeton, philanthropist and founder of the John Templeton Foundation

“Giving away money is hardly the hardest thing in the world to do. Giving it in a way that multiplies the intended good is a whole other matter.”-Malcolm S. Forbes

“Microcredit has proved to be an important liberating force in societies where women in particular have to struggle against repressive social and economic conditions.”- Nobel Prize Committee

“Microfinance is not charity. It is a way to extend the same rights and services to low-income households that are available to everyone else. It is recognition that poor people are the solution, not the problem.”-U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan

A Billion Bootstraps unearths the roots of the microcredit revolution, revealing how the pioneering work of people such as Dr. Muhammad Yunus-winner of the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize-is giving hope to billions. Philanthropist and self-made millionaire Phil Smith and microcredit expert and consultant Eric Thurman provide a riveting narrative that explores how these small loans, arranged by “barefoot bankers,” enable impoverished people to start small businesses, support their families, and improve local economies. By paying back their loans instead of simply accepting handouts, men and women around the world are continually giving others the same opportunity to change their futures.

Smith and Thurman also examine why traditional charity programs, while providing short-term relief, often perpetuate the problems they are trying to alleviate, and how applying investment principles to philanthropy is the key to reversing poverty permanently.

A Billion Bootstraps explains how ordinary people can accelerate the microcredit movement by investing charitable donations in specific programs and then leveraging those contributions so the net cost to lift one person out of poverty is remarkably low. You'll discover how to get more for your money by donating with the mind-set of an investor and calculating measurable returns-returns that will change lives and societies forever.

“Phil and Eric have done us a favor by breaking down the challenges of growth for microfinance into bite-sized elements any reader can benefit from, and have challenged and inspired us all to get more involved ... they have done an admirable job showing us what is happening, what is possible, and what we can do from their perspective as successful business people.”-Muhammad Yunus, 2006 Nobel Peace Prize winner, from the Foreword

“A Billion Bootstraps shows how successful people in the West can use sound business practices to create economic opportunities for poor families in other parts of the world.”-Sir John Templeton, legendary investor and founder of the John Templeton Foundation

“True charity attacks life's greatest injustices, demands major, demonstrable results, and avoids ego gratification. In A Billion Bootstraps, Phil Smith and Eric Thurman make an effective case that microcredit is the purest charitable strategy.”-George Kaiser, founder of the multi-billion dollar Tulsa Community Foundation and chairman of BOK Financial Corp.

Eric Thurman has been a leading expert in international philanthropy for decades. A former CEO of Opportunity International, HOPE International, and Geneva Global Inc., Thurman is now CEO of The Protos Fund. He has been profiled in Forbes magazine, on CNN, and in many other media forums.

www.abillionbootstraps.com