Our Objectives

JIMF is more than a financial resource; it is a vote of confidence in the ability of Jerusalem's women to lead, innovate, and prosper.

The Jerusalem Interest-Free Microfinance Fund (JIMF) was founded in 2008 to relieve financial hardship in Jerusalem's poorest communities, enabling people to establish and grow their own businesses through interest-free microfinance loans, vocational training, and technical assistance.

JIMF is a cross-communal initiative and a UK registered charity. It was founded by Jewish and Muslim Londoners who recognised that the Charedi (ultra-orthodox) Jewish community, and the Palestinian community, which together comprise approximately two-thirds of Jerusalem's population, suffer its highest rates of poverty. They decided that micro-finance loans could help ease their economic exclusion, and perhaps also build trust across Jerusalem’s divided communities.

The JIMF Objectives

1. Alleviating poverty among the population of Jerusalem.

2. Building foundations for community cohesion and peace by increasing economic opportunities and standards of living among Palestinian and Jewish families.

3. Providing interest-free financial support to entrepreneurs with sound business propositions but limited access to funding, enabling them to start, sustain, or expand their businesses.

4. Providing interest-free financial support to impecunious students seeking to enhance their careers through vocational education and training.

5. Providing advice, information, business training, mentoring and financial support to those seeking business education.

What We Do

JIMF provides interest-free loans, business skills and vocational training to aspiring entrepreneurs and small business owners lacking access to commercial loans, across Jerusalem's communities, with an almost exclusive focus on women. 

Interest-free loans are generally administered in partnership with MATI-Jerusalem, the city's leading business development centre, whose professional mentors provide rigorous screening, personalised business planning support, and ongoing mentoring before, during, and after the loan is granted. Our micro-finance loans are fully compliant with religious law - both Sharia and Halacha.

Repaid loans are recycled back into the Fund, enabling the next entrepreneur in the community to be supported. This creates a sustainable, self-reinforcing cycle of economic empowerment, as well as a culture of mutual accountability among borrowers who understand that their repayment makes the next loan possible.

Why Microfinance Works

JIMF's model rests on a simple but powerful insight: capital without guidance rarely succeeds, and guidance without capital rarely reaches those who need it most. By combining interest-free financing with structured professional support from MATI, JIMF gives women entrepreneurs not just a loan, but a genuine foundation for long-term business viability.

The results speak for themselves: a loan default rate of just 2%, businesses and professional services across sectors from dentistry to retail to food production, and women who have gone from economic dependence to running professional enterprises that support their families and inspire their communities.