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JIMF provides interest-free loans, business skills and vocational training to aspiring entrepreneurs and small business owners across Jerusalem's poorer communities, with an almost exclusive focus on women.
Interest-free microfinance loans are 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. Borrowers benefit from professional courses, business training, and close personal mentoring throughout their journey.
Our micro-finance loans are compliant with religious law – both Sharia and Halacha – charging neither interest nor administration fees. 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.
The JIMF Objectives
Alleviating poverty among the population of Jerusalem.
Building foundations for community cohesion and peace by increasing economic opportunities and standards of living among Palestinian and Jewish families.
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.
Providing interest-free financial support to needy students seeking to enhance their careers through vocational education.
Providing advice, information, business training, mentoring and financial support to those building businesses in Jerusalem.
The Secret of Our Success
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 economic viability.
The results speak for themselves: a loan default rate of just 2%, supporting businesses and professional services across sectors from dentistry to retail to food production, helping women to move from economic dependence to running professional enterprises that support their families and inspire their communities.
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