The Seven Bar Foundation is a social enterprise that uses cause marketing initiatives and the luxury lingerie industry to support microfinance. It is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization based out of New York, New York, that raises funds for microfinance institutions (MFIs) to help impoverished women start and expand their businesses. Model The Seven Bar Foundation is a social enterprise, a nonprofit that uses business models for social impact. The Foundation relies on commercial markets for a consistent revenue stream in place of relying on donor funding, which may be more unpredictable and limited. Seven Bar uses the European lingerie industry as a marketing platform. History Seven Bar is a third-generation family involved in general aviation, real estate development, and investments established in New Mexico beginning in the 1950s. Seven Bar and the Black family established the Seven Bar Foundation in 2001 with activities in eight states, contributing to community development projects in each. Logo The pink bars in Seven Bar Foundation's logo represent a "ladder" – an exit strategy out of poverty for women. The concept is based on the eighth step of Maimonides' Golden Ladder, "To prevent poverty by teaching a trade, setting up a person in business, or in some other way preventing the need of charity." Renata M. Black Renata Mutis Black has fought poverty in 12 different countries, working with terminally disabled children in Hong Kong, mentally disabled elders in New Zealand, and victims of the 2004 tsunami in India. The events of the 2004 tsunami centralized her vision toward microfinance. Black and her husband narrowly evaded the destruction of the tsunami when their flight to Thailand was cancelled because of a mechanical failure. After the disaster, Black immediately went to help rebuild the villages impacted by the catastrophic flooding. During this project, a woman from the region approached her and said, "I know you have money and I don't want it. But why don't you teach me how to make it myself?" This encounter sparked a new course for Black, who immersed herself in the study of microloans and their impact on impoverished communities with 2006 Nobel Prize winner Muhammad Yunus. Black then applied her training by establishing a grassroots microfinance endeavor in India that exists to this day. Having seen the transformative force of microfinance through her program in India. Black redirected the mission of the Seven Bar Foundation. To fund these institutions on