Who and What is lendwithcare? 1. The Entrepreneur has an idea Just like any small business, it all starts with an idea. An entrepreneur in poorer parts of the world approaches a local microfinance institution (MFI) with a business plan. MFIs are like local banks. However they provide financial services to people who big banks don’t normally serve – such as the poor or women. An entrepreneur’s business plan could be anything from dressmaking to expanding a small farm.

Who and What is lendwithcare? 2. The microfinance institution (MFI) gives a loan If the MFI is satisfied that the entrepreneur’s business plan is promising, they approve the proposal and provide the initial loan. The MFI then helps the entrepreneur to construct their profile for lendwithcare.org.

Who and What is lendwithcare? 3. You meet the Entrepreneur on lendwithcare.org The MFI uploads the entrepreneur’s profile to lendwithcare.org. You can find profiles from all over the world in the ‘Entrepreneurs’ section, where you can choose which promising business you’d like to support.‘Entrepreneurs’

Who and What is lendwithcare? 4. You lend your support When you’ve made your decision, you provide a loan to get the entrepreneur’s business plans off the ground. You can make a contribution towards the total needed, in amounts of £15 or more. Or you can invest the full amount yourself. You are now funding the entrepreneur; the MFI and CARE International will continue to manage the progress of the loan.

Who and What is lendwithcare? 5. The Entrepreneur grows their business While all this is happening, the entrepreneur is busy growing their business. The MFI and CARE International regularly updates the entrepreneur’s profile on the lendwithcare.org website, so you can follow their amazing progress. And you can see how their new source of income (and your loan) is transforming every aspect of their lives – paying for food, medicine and school fees, and providing a better future for their whole family.

Who and What is lendwithcare? 7. The Entrepreneur repays your loan The entrepreneur gradually pays back their loan. The MFI transfers these repayments to CARE International who then credit the repayment to your lendwithcare.org ‘Account’.Account You usually get your money back in full and on time. Sometimes however, just like any business, things might not go to plan. If the entrepreneur is not able to keep up with their repayment schedule, you might have to wait longer to recover your investment.

Who and What is lendwithcare?  8. You decide what happens next When the repaid loan is credited to your ‘ Account ’, you control what happens next. You can withdraw your money using a PayPal account. You can donate it to CARE International. Or you can do what most lenders do and make another loan, helping even more entrepreneurs turn their plans for business – and their hopes for a better future – into reality. ‘ Account ’

This is what I did with my £15 loan

Why should we lend? Or should we give?  Microfinance is a long-term and sustainable solution to helping combat poverty. After nearly 40 years of experience it has been shown that when poor people have access to – loans, savings, insurance and money transfer facilities – they can lift themselves out of poverty.

What are we going to do?  Year 8 at Thornden are going to try to raise money to LEND not give! We will get it back!  We are going to do this by being entrepreneurs ourselves rather than just asking our parents for money!  In a few weeks time you will all be given a £1. This is your ‘loan’ you can then use this investment to make a business to start making money!  You might be thinking a £1 isn’t enough but you can club together into small companies.  Then you will have 2 weeks to make money outside of school and in your spare time in school.  You will have tutor time to come up with ideas.

Ideas…  You could club together with 4 mates and buy sponges, washing up liquid and buckets. Spend a weekend doing a mobile car wash for all you friends and family, charge £4 a wash (as long as it is a good job!), perhaps you do 10 cars over a weekend. You have just made £5 into £40!

Ideas…  Club together with 3 friends and buy thread and beads. Make friendship bracelets. Sell them to your friends and family for £2 a go, sell 10 and you have made £3 into £20!  I’m sure your business ideas will be much better than mine!

If we make over £1000 as a year group…  So you will hand all this money into your tutor and if as a year group we make £1000 or more then we will lend it to lendwithcare over and over again until year 11 when we will take it out and it will go towards the PROM and YEARBOOK!!  If we make less than this then we will lend what we have to lendwithcare but gift it to them when we leave Thornden! 

Everyone is a winner! Get thinking of business ideas and after half term we will start working on this in Wednesday tutor time!