AUSTIN, TX, January 20, 2009 – deverus, Inc., a leading provider of software and support services for background screening companies, announced today that it is launching a new charitable foundation to help reduce world poverty through Microfinancing.
Shawn Rucks, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of deverus, in announcing the formation of the foundation, said, “It’s a very special thing to be truly able to create wealth and give to those who are most in need so that they can in turn help their families and local community.” Rucks continued, “We have been blessed as a company in these tough economic times and we consider it a responsibility and privilege to be able to give back to help individuals who would otherwise not have the resources necessary to rise above their local challenges.”
The foundation will be known as The deverus Foundation. Through the foundation, deverus has already provided $12,000.00 in funding earmarked for Microfinancing. According to Rucks, deverus will add three percent of its annual profits to the fund specifically for helping the poor find financing for local projects in third world countries, through a micro financing company called Kiva . Also, individual employees of deverus will be able to participate in contributing to The deverus Foundation.
The following was excerpted from the Kiva website – www.kiva.com – “To date, Kiva has enabled lenders to send $56,990,760.00 to the working poor around the world.” Also from their website, “These people need to be able to provide for themselves and their families – not with hand-outs, but with a steady income from a self-sustainable business. We believe trade – and not aid – is the most effective way of helping the poor to create sustainable, long-term solutions to improving standards of living throughout the world.”
Kiva's mission is to connect people through lending for the sake of alleviating poverty. Kiva is the world's first person-to-person micro-lending website, empowering individuals to lend directly to unique entrepreneurs in the developing world.
The people you see on Kiva's site are real individuals in need of funding – not marketing material. When you browse entrepreneurs' profiles on the site, choose someone to lend to, and then make a loan, you are helping a real person make great strides towards economic independence and improve life for themselves, their family, and their community. Throughout the course of the loan (usually 6-12 months), you can receive email journal updates and track repayments. Then, when you get your loan money back, you can relend to someone else in need.
Kiva provides a data-rich, transparent lending platform. We are constantly working to make the system more transparent to show how money flows throughout the entire cycle, and what effect it has on the people and institutions lending it, borrowing it, and managing it along the way. To do this, we are using the power of the Internet to facilitate one-to-one connections that were previously prohibitively expensive. Child sponsorship has always been a high overhead business. Kiva creates a similar interpersonal connection at much lower costs due to the instant, inexpensive nature of internet delivery. The individuals featured on our website are real people who need a loan and are waiting for socially-minded individuals like you to lend them money.
deverus helps emerging leaders in the background check industry to diversify, compete and grow in a changing marketplace by providing the highest quality software and customer support services available. We specialize in the smart application of technology and industry expertise to provide effective background screening software solutions.
Our solutions increase accuracy of order and results, reduce or eliminate manual processing, and simplify management processes, resulting in sustainable profit margins and long-term customer retention. deverus is a nationwide, privately held company based in Austin, TX. For more information, visit www.deverus.com.