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ACCION USA is a private nonprofit organization that provides credit and business training to "microentrepreneurs" - low- and moderate-income self-employed women and men. ACCION USA was launched in 1991 by ACCION International, a world pioneer in microlending that now serves over 1.4 million active borrowers in 20 countries in Latin America, the Caribbean and sub-Saharan Africa. ACCION USA's goal is make access to credit a permanent resource to the millions of owners of small businesses in the United States. ACCION sees credit as a resource that can help to narrow the income gap and provide financial opportunities, fostering economic growth in distressed areas. Concerned about growing income inequality in the United States, ACCION brought its Latin American lending model home to the U.S., starting a program in Brooklyn, New York in 1991. Since that time, the U.S. ACCION Network has disbursed over $90 million in small business loans to more than 16,800 home-based and storefront business owners, helping them to expand their businesses, increase their income and improve the well being of their families. Now, the U.S. ACCION Network is the largest in the United States, with 9 regional locations serving more than 35 cities and towns. In 1997, President Clinton honored the U.S. ACCION Network with one of the first Presidential Awards for Excellence in Microenterprise Development for its success in demonstrating the viability of microlending in the United States. In December 2001, Worth Magazine named ACCION as one of the nation's top charitable institutions. Worth's "America's 100 Best Charities" list was chosen from over 800,00 nonprofit organizations in the country and was based on six months of research into financial statements, mission fulfillment and impact evaluations. Most recently, ACCION's pioneering role in microfinance was recognized for generating tangible results in fighting poverty by bringing a full range of financial services to the poor by Fast Company Magazine. In it's inaugural year, the Fast Company/Monitor Social Capitalist Awards quantitatively measured a group's innovation and social impact, as well as the viability and sustainability of its business model. In the analysis ACCION was awarded an A+ for social impact, A for innovation and an A- for entrepreneurship. ACCION was the only international microfinance organization named in the Awards, which honored groups "changing the world by using entrepreneurial genius to solve some of the world's most daunting social problems."