Programs
Over the years, Foundation programs have achieved lasting impact, driving aggregate wage gains for disadvantaged, high-potential individuals who currently lacked access to economic mobility.
Prosperity Beyond Borders has been the Western Union Foundation’s capstone initiative, aimed at supporting individuals who have migrated from underserved communities with the skill building, workforce readiness, and economic mobility needed to attain better jobs and increased earnings.
As the Western Union Foundation sunsets, the work of Prosperity Beyond Borders will continue under Western Union’s ongoing community engagement efforts, ensuring our commitment to economic opportunity endures.
We partnered with innovative nonprofits that provide scholarships for international students from low-income countries, market-driven skill building courses, and business boot camps .
We’re proud to invest in fellowship programs that support leaders and entrepreneurs in their community ventures, seed funding to launch new businesses, and small business development to help empower leaders.
The Western Union Foundation supported systems that facilitate safe and equitable access to jobs in the formal labor market for people who have migrated.
Case Study: The Western Union Foundation invested in critical research in partnership with Labor Mobility Partnerships with an ultimate goal of helping people have safer, more sustainable, and more prosperous opportunities for cross-border temporary employment. This research laid the foundation for a technology-based tool that brings key industry partners together to infuse greater transparency and worker voice into recruitment practices.
This initiative enables people looking for cross-border work – and large companies looking for temporary workers – to match up through ethical channels. The end product is meant to remove exploitative third parties from the recruitment process and therefore better protect and serve seasonal workers.
This initiative can help the H-2A (temporary agricultural labor) program achieve its potential to lift nearly 240,000 low-income workers and their families from Mexico out of poverty and on a path towards economic mobility, while also addressing deepening labor shortages in the U.S. agricultural sector.
Our work was anchored by our two signature programs that provided scholarships for international students and fellowships for community leaders, driving both workforce readiness and jobs creation.
Global Scholars Program, powered by IIE
The Western Union Foundation Global Scholars Program provides scholarships for international students who are struggling financially to complete their final years of college. Students must be nominated by a representative from their higher education institution.
Fellowship Program, powered by Watson Institute
The Western Union Foundation Fellowship provides entrepreneurs with business training and seed funding to launch community-focused ventures. The program is designed for young community leaders who are from and working with highly marginalized, refugee, and forcibly displaced communities.