Empowering people, communities and economies
At Visa, our Purpose is to uplift everyone, everywhere by being the best way to pay and be paid. We’re working to help build an inclusive economy that provides everyone with access to secure and affordable payments and other financial services.
For annual programmatic and progress updates please see our latest Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability Report.
Small and micro businesses
Small and micro businesses (SMBs) are the backbone of the global economy, and we empower them with skills, solutions and access to networks and financial services to fund, run and grow their business. In 2023, we digitally enabled ~67M SMBs, exceeding our goal to digitally enable 50 million SMBs by 2023.
By leveraging our network, products and partnerships, we are helping sellers adopt digital commerce options and enabling SMBs to accept secure electronic payments, make earned funds readily available to payees and avoid installing costly infrastructure, including through such offerings as Visa Acceptance Cloud, Visa Direct, Scan to Pay, Tap to Phone and more.
In small and micro business, our priorities include:
Financial education and digital skill building: Offering Practical Business Skills, Visa's educational portal for small business owners with 40-plus educational modules and tools supporting day-to-day business activities.
Digital commerce and capabilities: Visa has introduced a range of locally-designed programs and solutions that include building online businesses, increasing the acceptance of digital payments and incentivizing neighborhood support.
Equitable access to capital: Visa and Visa Foundation aim to increase equitable and efficient access to capital at different stages of business growth, including through Visa’s partnership with IFundWomen.
For more information on these programs, please visit our Social Impact page.
Equity and inclusion
At Visa, our Purpose is to uplift everyone, everywhere by being the best way to pay and be paid. We are building a world where all individuals and businesses are not only included in the formal financial system, but can benefit equitably from financial and digital access, tools and technologies to improve their lives.
In equity and inclusion, our priorities are as follows:
Women’s economic advancement: Visa is committed to using the full power of our network, brand and financial resources to help female entrepreneurs achieve their dreams, including through our global women’s entrepreneurship initiative, She’s Next, Empowered by Visa, as well as our partnership with IFund Women, a platform for female entrepreneurs.
Racial equity: Our commitment to racial equity within Visa is complemented by our external impact, supporting entrepreneurs and individuals from racial and ethnic minority communities, including through Visa Foundation grants aimed at addressing the challenges in access to capital of underrepresented groups.
Financial inclusion and digital equity: Through expanding digital payments account access, Visa continues to advance financial inclusion, improving the lives of millions of people and strengthening economies around the world.
Financial education: Visa provides free and accessible financial education to help people better manage their money, including through our flagship program, Practical Money Skills. Practical Money Skills programs offer more than 75 online learning modules in 7 languages.
For more information on these programs, please visit our Social Impact page.
Community
We strengthen the communities in which we live and work by using our resources, network and the talent of our global employee base to make a positive impact where it is most needed.
Our priorities include:
Disaster and humanitarian relief: Visa responds to humanitarian crises and disasters in communities around the globe by contributing our resources and unique capabilities in partnerships with governments, international relief groups and private organizations.
Employee volunteerism and giving: We empower our employees to give to their communities through donations of time, talent and funds. We encourage our employees to support causes important to them through offerings such as Matching Gifts, Volunteer Time Off, Dollars for Doers and other community opportunities.
Philanthropy: Our community giving efforts focus on the needs most relevant to the communities in which we live, work and do business across themes such as access to education, support for vulnerable populations, hunger relief and promotion of good health.
For more information on these programs, please visit our Social Impact page.
Visa Foundation: The Visa Foundation operates parallel to our corporate giving activities. As a registered 501(c)(3) non-profit, the Visa Foundation seeks to support inclusive economies where individuals, businesses and communities can thrive. Through grantmaking and investing, the Visa Foundation prioritizes the resilience and growth of SMBs that benefit women.
For Visa Inc. and Visa Foundation data, please see the CR&S Resources page to access our latest CR&S report.
See our latest progress
For annual programmatic and progress updates, please see our CR&S Resources page for our latest CR&S Report.