In 1997, its first year of operation, member companies collectively hired 135,000 welfare recipients, a number the organization hopes to double by its second anniversary in May 1999. Membership is free and open to any business that has hired or pledged to hire welfare recipients without displacing existing workers. Mentoring from a network of members who have gone through the process. Hiring guides and a nationwide list of organizations that provide work-ready candidates. Free, hotline assistance to help small companies with 250 or less employees obtain the federal tax credit designed to help offset training and retention costs.
Companies gain access to a new pool of talent and the assistance needed to tap it.
Welfare recipients open the door to independence and a better life. Communities benefit from strengthened families and the improvement in children's lives that come with self-sufficiency and the prospect of a brighter future. People at the lowest income levels can tell you it rarely reaches them. That was the inspiration for Trickle Up, founded in 1979 by former United Nations workers Mildred Robbins Leet and her late husband, Glen. An international nonprofit organization, Trickle Up is dedicated to reducing poverty by helping the lowest-income people around the world start or expand their own businesses.