Why has the suggested voluntary top-up donation amount increased?

The suggested voluntary donation amount increased from 10% to 15% in February 2021 along with changes to make it easier to adjust the voluntary donation lenders can give when making a loan. This is in line with other similar schemes.

Although we suggest 15% of the loan value, all top-up donations are on a voluntary basis and lenders are welcome to adjust their top-up donation amount. This can be done by selecting another value from the drop-down list in the basket. 

100% of every loan you make on Lendwithcare goes straight to entrepreneurs so that they can grow their businesses and support their families.

Lendwithcare has grown considerably since launching in 2010 and so too have the costs to ensure your loans are having the biggest impact. We need voluntary top-up donations to continue supporting the Lendwithcare website and to facilitate loans between our fantastic lenders and the entrepreneurs you choose to help. Your voluntary donations enable us to do many things, such as:

• Conduct regular due-diligence and monitoring of our growing number of partner microfinance institutions, and provide critical technical assistance to ensure your loans have the biggest impact
• Build and maintain a website than can facilitate millions of loans to thousands of entrepreneurs
• Provide first-class customer service to thousands of lenders
• And invest in marketing so we can attract new lenders and provide the opportunity to even more low-income and marginalised entrepreneurs around the world to work their own way out of poverty.
• Cover the cost of the bank charges we incur.

Despite the incredible number of entrepreneurs we have been able to reach with your loans over the last few years, we know that there are still millions of low-income and marginalised entrepreneurs who are excluded from basic financial services. The increase in income we receive from increased voluntary donations will allow us to do more of what we do best by increasing the number of lenders supporting Lendwithcare, expanding Lendwithcare’s reach into new countries and ultimately supporting more low-income entrepreneurs to transform their lives as a result.

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