Good Return’s Strategic Plan
Empowering entrepreneurs through experience and innovation
Hear from the Good Return team about our bold new strategy and its focus.
Good Return’s 2025—2028 strategic plan sets out how we will work to empower more people with the skills, confidence, and tools they need to build financially resilient lives. It guides how we prioritise, plan resources, and stay accountable for the outcomes that matter most.
We remain focused on supporting people who are marginalised and excluded from financial services, particularly women entrepreneurs, while piloting initiatives for young people, people with disabilities, and migrant workers. By combining financial empowerment with inclusive finance, and leveraging innovative approaches like our Impact Investment Fund, climate-smart solutions, and tailored digital tools, we aim to break barriers in the financial system and help more people confidently grow their livelihoods.
Who we will reach: our target groups
We will continue our focus on helping people who are marginalised and excluded from financial services and economic opportunity - particularly women entrepreneurs. By improving access and building financial capability, we help them increase resilience, secure livelihoods, and demonstrate their value to financial service providers.
We will also pilot targeting:
People with disabilities are among the poorest and most excluded from financial and economic opportunities. By involving them in shaping services and building their financial skills, we enable their fuller participation in the economy through better money management and business activity.
Young adults (18–24) because they are at a transformative stage where financial habits can be shaped for lasting impact. By adapting our programs to their needs and using the digital tools they already engage with, we empower them to build positive financial behaviours, develop digital and climate awareness, and confidently use financial services.
Migrant workers often face exclusion and exploitation due to residency status, language, and cultural barriers. By working with local partners to deliver financial training, we help them and their families access safe financial solutions and build strong financial capability.
How we will work: our approach
Our work has two focus pillars: financial empowerment and inclusive finance. This powerful combination of skill building and breaking barriers within the financial system will help more entrepreneurs confidently access the financial system and build their livelihoods.
We want to enable financially excluded and marginalised households to achieve financial wellbeing by taking control of their financial life. We do this by:
Designing content & resources on financial capability
Deploying financial capability resources through training, digital platforms and campaigns
Supporting the capacity of local partners to deliver financial capability initiatives
Participating in research & advocacy projects on financial capability
Learn more about our Financial empowerment projects to build money and business skills
Our Inclusive Finance goal is to transform the financial sector by partnering with providers to champion social impact, and ensure women-led and other small enterprises gain sustainable access to responsible services. We do this by:
Design of inclusive finance resources & tools
Delivery of training & technical assistance
Design and deployment of financial solutions
Facilitation of peer knowledge exchange
Participation in research & advocacy projects
Learn more about our Inclusive finance projects to make finance fairer
Leading with innovative finance
Good Return’s first Impact Investment Fund has already provided over $5 million in loans—90% to women entrepreneurs—unlocking ripple effects for families, communities, and local economies. The fund works by providing a guarantee that enables our financial institution partners to confidently extend loans to those who would otherwise be excluded. With Fund 2, we’re scaling this impact to help more entrepreneurs break the cycle of poverty, build resilient livelihoods, and adapt to the challenges of climate change.
Staying focused: our strategic priorities
Building on 20 years of expertise in creating and sharing financial education tools, we will continue to refine what works while pioneering new approaches to reach those most in need and drive lasting change. Our flagship initiative is our Impact Investment Fund, leading the way in the sector by using an innovative blended finance tool to change the system, and people’s lives.
Our work in financial empowerment focuses on strengthening people’s confidence, decision-making power, and entrepreneurial skills, while also helping households build the resilience they need to withstand climate and economic shocks. We aim to see this reflected in people’s own measures of success and in stronger financial resilience that enables them to adapt and thrive.
We focus on building digital financial literacy for vulnerable communities, especially women entrepreneurs, so they can confidently use digital financial services. By offering simple, practical learning through videos, chatbots, and familiar platforms like messaging apps and social media—and by training local champions to share resources—we make digital learning accessible and relevant. This empowers people to strengthen their financial capability, resilience, and business growth.
We build strong partnerships with financial service providers, as well as community and government organisations, to ensure marginalised groups can access services that meet their needs. These partnerships are always guided by a localised approach, drawing on local expertise and cultural understanding to make programs effective and sustainable.
At the same time, we strengthen our relationships with donors, keeping them closely connected to our work and impact, and fostering long-term collaboration to drive inclusive change.
Local focus: country-led program design
To explore our localised strategies, click on a country on the map. You'll discover how our work is guided by the specific needs of local partners and communities, as well as national priorities, within our key focus areas.
Our targets
At Good Return, we uphold accountability by setting clear, ambitious targets to maximise the reach of our initiatives. Key targets in our new strategy are:
Pioneer digital financial education: We'll develop and scale a digital framework for financial education across at least 4 countries.
Expand our financial empowerment programs: We'll grow our core financial empowerment offerings in 8 countries, aiming for a 10% increase in learners annually.
Commit to inclusive and ethical partnerships: We'll ensure that 100% of our financial service provider (FSP) partners embed Gender Equality, Disability, and Social Inclusion (GEDSI) principles and adhere to best practices in client protection and regulatory compliance.
Innovate for climate resilience: We'll develop and launch 4 new climate-resilient financial solutions with partners to help communities withstand and recover from environmental shocks.
