#14 Integra Ventures: Making a Long Term Impact
Long term commitment is a pivotal ingredient for the success of the business as mission movement. Launching successful businesses require a massive amount of time, effort and energy. The journey is filled with highs and lows and success is far from guaranteed.
Since being asked to serve as President of Integra USA in the fall of 2005, Bob Kuhlman has continued to lead a charge within the business as mission community to place a long term emphasis on any involvement from churches and people wanting to get involved. This commitment is a key ingredient towards directing the growing conversation of business as mission in the right direction for the years to come.As a business coaching center and bridge between the businessmen here in the US to the entrepreneurs in central Asia Integra ventures is a catalyst in the business as mission movement to watch in 2007. Here's a little more about their organization:
"Integra Ventures, began as an outreach of International Teams (IT), a historically innovative traditional ministry which focused its work in Eastern and Central Europe. During the transitional years just after the fall of the communist regimes across the region, IT board member Bob Fulton saw an opportunity to reach people with the Gospel by fostering business development. As a successful entrepreneur from the Boston area, Bob knew first hand the impact a company run with integrity could have on communities.
Over time, a growing pool of would be Christian entrepreneurs emerged. Bob and others provided basic business counsel and encouragement. A handful of successful companies developed in the region. As a part of the training, business owners were challenged to consider their role as believers working in business. They were mentored to see that their responsibilities included personal care and concern for employees and their families, and working to become model companies functioning with integrity. Such a perspective on business was uncommon at the time.
In 1993 Integra Ventures was formed as a separate nonprofit organization and came together with a group of like-minded ministries already functioning in Slovakia and Romania. In short order organizations were formed in Bulgaria and later Serbia. Today the organization functions in Russia as well, and has clients in Croatia and Hungary.
Integra’s mission is to develop businesses which will impact society, change communities and touch lives with the gospel. We provide training and loans for aspiring entrepreneurs in Central and Eastern Europe and Russia. More than 70 staff work in Slovakia, Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia, and Russia, providing business training seminars, one-on-one mentoring, and counsel on marketing, sales, inventory management, and finance.
Their micro-enterprise Development (MED) program works largely with women at risk, defined as those below the poverty line with little or no business opportunity available to them. They are “at risk” because of the loss of a husband (through death or divorce), or are married to an individual who has been disabled. Loans in the MED program range from $1,000 to $2,500.
Usually clients in the MED program are not Christians. This ‘cup of cold water’ ministry often provides Integra staff with opportunities to introduce clients to a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
The Small- and Medium-sized Enterprise (SME) program works with larger businesses, employing from five to fifty individuals. Loans are larger, in the $10,000 to $50,000 range, and the owners are already Christians seeking to live out their faith through their work.
Integra personnel seek to instill a serious “business-as-mission” philosophy in SME clients. Business owners are encouraged to see their work as ministry, communicating the love of Christ to employees, customers, and others in the community."
