Mission & History

Mission: Abolish extreme poverty worldwide by mobilizing the idealism and talents of today's students.

ASAP History
In the spring of 2004 at the Monterey Institute of International Studies, John Hatch, founder of FINCA International and co-founder of ASAP, was conducting what he thought was going to be a routine 2-day seminar on microfinance. However, the seminar concluded with a lively discussion about creating a student movement. In this initiative students would raise, manage, distribute and evaluate the impact of $8 billion that would support the self-help efforts of 160 million of the world's poorest families. To raise this super-fund, students would convince one out of every hundred Americans to pledge "$1/day for those living on less than $1/day" and sustain this commitment through the year 2025. Funds would be channeled through hundreds of the world's existing microfinance institutions. On the plane home, John typed on his laptop the first draft of a concept paper entitled: "A Student Movement for Abolishing Global Poverty.” Upon his return, John began strategizing with his co-worker at FINCA, and co-founder of ASAP, Patrick Crompton. 

At FINCA, John and Patrick led the research team. Each year, they would recruit, train and deploy dozens of undergraduate and graduate students to FINCA field programs around the world. Each student would interview eight to ten FINCA clients everyday about their struggles with poverty and their successes and occasional failures with their microenterprises. After interviewing over 300 individuals, each student returned to the United States with a new perspective on the world and poverty. Most, if not all, returned with a new found desire to eradicate global poverty as part of their life’s mission. Many students have since gone on to promising careers in microfinance and development. 

It was through their teaching and research experiences that John and Patrick came to understand the enormous potential power of youth and students in the fight against global poverty. Alliance of Students Against Poverty (ASAP) was created for the purpose of giving motivated and socially conscious students the opportunity to see severe poverty first-hand. This experience would cause an internal transformational process--a "fire in the belly"—that would create a desire within to do everything in their power to mobilize society's resources to eradicate poverty. John has been caught saying many times: “Youth is the answer. What is the question?” Which begs the question: How are we going to eradicate extreme poverty? Through our YOUTH!