Member Article

Fredericks Foundation is raising funds to support women entrepreneurs

Fredericks Foundation has launched a crowdfunding campaign to raise funds for the Women’s Loan Fund supporting strong, innovative women that want to improve their lives and communities.

Women’s Loan Fund was launched in 2017, providing funds to disadvantaged women with a viable business plan who want to launch a new business or need support to develop an existing one but can’t access mainstream finance.

The crowdfunding campaign will be run through Crowdfunder and aims to raise at least £25,000 between 8th May and 6th June.

Duncan Parker, CEO at Fredericks Foundation comments:

“The Women’s Loan Fund was created to empower women to turn their ideas into reality and unlock new opportunities for creating a better life for themselves, their families and ultimately, their communities.

We have a pipeline of inspiring, smart women that need a hand up to turn their lives around but can’t access funding from traditional sources even though the social impact of lending to women is far greater. With this crowdfunding campaign we want to encourage and support as many women as possible to achieve their full potential, become financially independent and valuable economic contributors to society through sustainable self-employment.“

Through the Women’s Loan Fund, the charity provides loans of up to £10,000 for start-ups and follow-on loans of up to £35,000 to cash-poor women entrepreneurs. Besides financial support, each entrepreneur will also benefit from a specialist mentor who will guide and help them to develop and grow their business.

Pia, one of Fredericks’ clients that now runs a very successful business, The Vanilla Pod Bakery, comments: “I honestly don’t know what I would have done without Fredericks. They believed in me when no one else would give me a chance.”

“Without the help and financial support the Fredericks Foundation has given me I simply could not have gone into manufacturing and my product would have never seen the marketplace. 12 months later I’m exporting my products and my business is growing fast”, adds Danielle, another woman entrepreneur supported by Fredericks to launch a thriving cosmetics company, Ohmyskin

At the moment 20% of Fredericks Foundation’s loans are granted to single mothers, 42% are to women in migrant communities and ethnic minorities and 11% to women with disability.

Fredericks Foundation is a UK charity and Responsible Finance Provider that provides microloans and ongoing business support to people who are seeking to start or grow their own business but cannot obtain mainstream finance. About Fredericks

Fredericks Foundation was founded in 2001 by Paul Barry-Walsh, a successful IT entrepreneur. In the years since, Fredericks has transformed the lives of thousands. Fredericks has given entrepreneurs – unattractive to high street banks – a hand up to start their own businesses, follow a dream, climb out of poverty, look after their families and become economic contributors to society. Fredericks Foundation has helped create over 1,600 companies and has granted loans of over £5 million.

We would highly appreciate your support on this initiative and Fredericks is happy to provide any additional information you might need.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Fredericks Foundation .