Kashf Foundation

Content sourced from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Kashf Foundation is a non-profit microfinance organization in Pakistan, founded in 1996 by Roshaneh Zafar in Lahore. It was the country’s first microfinance institution to use the village banking model, offering affordable loans, savings, micro-insurance, and non-financial support to low-income households—especially women—to build skills and strengthen their economic position. Its mission is to promote social equality and women’s rights by helping women become active agents of change.

Headquartered in Lahore, Kashf now operates from more than 200 branches nationwide. It has provided micro-health insurance to over a million people and distributed hundreds of millions of dollars in funds to its clients. Kashf pioneered women-focused microfinance products, micro-savings, and a consumer protection code, and in 2009 established Kashf Microfinance Bank to offer savings and deposits regulated by the State Bank of Pakistan.

Kashf has received major international recognition, including the Grameen Foundation Microfinance Excellence Award, the AGFUND International Prize for Microcredit, a place on Forbes’ Top 50 MFIs list in 2008, and the European Microfinance Award for Microfinance and Access to Education in 2016. The foundation uses group lending, emphasizes small, regular repayments, and combines financial services with education and family-based loan assessments.

The founder’s journey—from studying development economics to working with the World Bank, meeting Muhammad Yunus, and launching Kashf with support from Yunus and INSEAD interns—remains central to its identity. The name Kashf means unveiling or revelation in Sufi thought, symbolizing inner knowledge and social transformation.

Kashf supports education through Kashf School Sarmaya, working with over 400 low-cost private schools. It also uses media and theatre to address women’s issues and runs programs like the Business Incubation Lab to help women start and grow businesses.