Trust & Security
We make crowdfunding easy, but we don’t take it lightly — so we take a variety of measures to strengthen the security of our community and put confidence behind your compassion.
First, we verify the identity of our entrepreneurs by:
- Independently verifying their name and national identity numbers by requiring ID card copies and/or verifying against national identity registries.
- Disbursing funds through banks and payment services that check government-issued identity cards to verify recipients' identity.
- Requiring entrepreneurs to provide telephone numbers of at least three local contacts that can vouch for their identity and reputation, before raising projects of substantial size.
- Using data science to screen entrepreneur accounts for suspicious activity before activating new entrepreneurs and disbursing funds.
- Having local volunteer mentors conduct phone interviews and provide a second screening of applicants before they may raise substantial amounts.
- When available, consulting a national credit bureau to ensure the entrepreneur does not have any nonperforming loans.
Then we help incentivize responsible participation by:
- Limiting project sizes to small amounts for new entrepreneurs and increasing those limits gradually over time.
- Displaying entrepreneurs' historical fundraising and payment performance so prospective backers can evaluate their track records.
- Displaying comments and feedback ratings left by previous backers on entrepreneurs' profile pages.
- Inviting entrepreneurs who have contributed positively to the community over time to serve as volunteer mentors and help recruit new members.
