AMRE FINANCE FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS (FAQ)

amrefinance.com is a two-sided online platform where kind-hearted individuals, donor organizations, and businesses with corporate social responsibility (CSR) budgets called BACKERS give back to properly vetted impact entrepreneurs, community organizations, and creative talents called CREATORS that are running a fundraising campaign on amrefinance.com. Our mission is aligned with two United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) namely to reduce socio-economic inequalities between communities (SDG 10) using innovative technological solutions to mobilise financial resources and create financial inclusion (SDG 17.3 and SDG 17.8).

There is something unique that a backer gets when they donate on amrefinance.com. This is our secret sauce and it is called the Return on Charity. In effect, you get a token or certificate of recognition called the AMRE when you donate to a campaign on the platform. Imagine that the AMRE eventually grows into an invaluable tradeable asset… To unlock access to the 10 key facts about the AMRE, click here

No. To create an account, you only need to provide your name and email address. Creating an account does not oblige you to donate to a campaign or take any further action on the platform. 

No. If you ever decide to donate to a campaign on the platform, the platform will redirect you to an internationally recognised payment gateway such as PayPal, or Onafriq for mobile wallet payments, where you will make a secured payment.

Two factors differentiate amrefinance.com from other similar platforms namely:

• Roving Fund-raising: amrefinance.com organizes fundraising events from country to country where the creator can pitch their project and increase the chance of raising all the funds their campaign needs within a 90-minute timeframe. 
• Incubator Support: amrefinance.com provides support to creators in building a robust campaign that stands a great chance of getting buy-in and respect within the community. Such a campaign will get validation of their proof of concept from the collective wisdom of the community rather than from us or a credit officer in a traditional financial institution when they ‘like’, ‘add a review’, and chat with a creator in real-time online.

To qualify to run a fundraising campaign on amrefinance.com you should be a social-impact entrepreneur involved in a project that addresses one or more of the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals, a community organisation that reinforces common bond within a community through such activities such as cultural, sports, educational activities, etc., or a creative talent such as craftsmen, sculptors, writers, sportsmen, entertainers, etc., who enlighted and uplift their community through their work.

The registered office of amrefinance.com is in Rwanda; hence, AMRE Finance should operate either under the ambit of the National Bank of Rwanda or the Capital Markets Authority. Although the National Bank of Rwanda does not regulate donation-based crowdfunding, it has recommended that AMRE should approach interested partners (customers) to use our products.

amrefinance.com removes information asymmetry (or campaign opacity) between the backer and the creator by subjecting impact projects that run fundraising campaigns on amrefinance.com through our 4-step risk transformation process. This is to ensure that only properly vetted campaigns raise funds on our platform. If you give directly to a creator, you cannot be sure if you are dealing with a ‘scam’ project or creator.

• Pre-screening: Before creating a campaign, the creator is required to confirm that they and/or their organization are of good standing by responding to 6 screening questions.
• Incubator Support: When a creator starts creating a campaign, we will contact them and support them to articulate the idea, theory of change, strategy, traction, budget, and team. If a creator does not have satisfactory material to articulate the points and produce a compelling impact campaign, the campaign will be rejected. If the campaign needs specialized services such as those offered by accountants, lawyers, web designers, graphic designers, etc., we will refer the campaign to a professional on our incubator support panel.
• Due Diligence Review: This consists of a real-time online verification of the identity and address of the creator and a manual know-your-customer (KYC) process. For more details on the checks carried out in the KYC process, go to our KYC form by clicking here. Our KYC process ensures only the highest quality campaigns get funding on our platform. The process includes but is not limited to being an actively registered nonprofit, that its leadership has not been flagged for any financial crimes or adverse mentions, and that its mission aligns with the purpose of our platform, and compliance with sanctions.
• Piecemeal Disbursement: Remittance of funds raised by a campaign will be done in piecemeal, namely in three tranches. The first tranche is 30% of the funds raised, the second is another 30% of the funds raised and the last tranche is the remaining 40% after deducting transaction processing fees and amrefinance.com commission.

If a campaign fails on any of the above risk transformation steps, it cannot get funding via amrefinance.com.

No. Whereas the amrefinance.com risk transformation procedure is aimed at reducing the risk of campaigns going burst, donations made to fraudulent campaigns, or diversion/misuse of funds raised, the decision to donate to a campaign is that of the backer and the liability remains fully that of the creators of the campaign. AMRE Finance serves to disintermediate access to funding and hence does not share such risks with either the backer or the creator.

Apart from raising funds or donating to a campaign, brand ambassadors and community leaders can enter into a Win-Win Partnership with amrefinance.com and earn invaluable rewards. Technical experts such as lawyers, accountants, web and graphic designers, etc. can advertise their services on the platform as part of our ‘freemium’ incubator support program, and provide part-free, part-paid services to creators on the platform. Through our Referral and Pioneer Subscribers Program, you can also earn invaluable rewards. Please contact us at in**@am*********.com for more information.

When you donate to a campaign raising funds on amrefinance.com, the funds go to an appropriate amrefinance.com bank account in its country of incorporation or in the country where the donation is made depending on which is cost effective, where it is held in trust until the campaign achieves its funding goal and passes the due diligence review. If the campaign meets these two conditions, we transfer the funds raised to the campaign’s bank account through wire transfer or by cheque.

If the campaign fails to meet its funding goal or fails the due diligence review, we will advise you to consider reallocating your donation to another campaign on our platform. If you cannot find another campaign to reallocate your donation to within one month, we will refund you. Refer to article B.2.2.4 of the Terms of Use for more information about the funding goal.

You should email us at su*****@am*********.com in case you have a query about your donation. Our support team will review your query and hopefully provide a satisfactory response. If you do not get a satisfactory response from us, you can make recourse to the competent law and enforcement authorities in Rwanda or in the country where the campaign is operating.

Given that backers from many countries around the world make donations through amrefinance.com, and each country has its unique tax legislation, we advise you to refer to your tax consultant, who will be able to provide you with an appropriate answer depending on your tax residence and the tax laws in that jurisdiction.

A backer can donate directly on amrefinance.com via a third-party payment gateway that gives them the option to pay via direct debit, debit card, PayPal, or Mobile Money. Traditional payment methods are also allowed such as wire, checks, etc. but these are not done online.

amrefinance.com commission is a small deduction made each time a backer donates to a campaign on the platform. The deduction is 5% of the amount donated by the backer. This commission is used to pay for the maintenance, research, and development of the platform, our back-office services, outreach activities, and management costs.

The transaction processing fee is the fee charged by the bank or money transfer company when amrefinace.com remits the funds raised by the campaign to the campaign’s bank account. A transaction processing fee may also be charged by the bank when we instruct the bank to refund a backer.

amrefinance.com is the official two-sided fundraising platform whereas amrefinance.org is the website where we post blog articles, videos, and podcasts. 

Yes. To remain anonymous, all the backer needs to do is check the ‘Back this campaign anonymously’ box at the time of donating to a campaign on amrefinance.com 

If a donation is reasonably suspected to relate to terrorism finance, money laundry, fraud, corruption or to be in breach of any funds flow rules and regulations, the donation will be refunded to the backer, the backer’s account suspended and all AMRE tokens earned destroyed. As part of our KYC process, we check that the name of the creator (and, if a legal entity, its owners) does not appear on the PEP List and/or OFAC-SDN List, the consolidated UN, EU asset freeze list, etc.