Zero-Kap is a registered FEMI trust fund. The fund provides credits to people in developing countries who are structurally living in impoverished conditions and who have ideas and plans to break through this spiral of poverty that keeps them trapped. Zero-Kap offers them access to financial means to which they normally would not (yet) have access.

Method
Zero-Kap focuses on providing credits to groups of relatively neglected people who have organised in societies, cooperatives and other collectives in which decision-taking is a joint process as much as possible.
The projects financed with Zero-Kap funds are generally too insignificant for traditional NGOs. It is a more risky “market” because being small-scale also means that projects depend on few people. They often are projects that have just started and have managers with little experience.

A typical Zero-Kap credit is somewhere in the range of € 10,000 and € 50,000. Zero-Kap is not so much interested in the scope of the project but rather in the small-scale approach and the direct effect on employment and living conditions and in the direct contacts between the people who donate and those who receive.
People who take out a loan can choose between an interest-free Euro loan or a loan in the local currency with a relative low interest rate, which Zero-Kap primarily uses to cover the exchange risks.

Zero-Kap is a trust fund with a small and expert project committee and a larger group of expert volunteer consultants. Loan applications are carefully prepared by one of the consultants. The application is assessed on the basis of a scoring methodology in which the business plan, the social and economic impact, the risks of success and repayment are carefully weighed. After approval by the committee the credit will be paid out.
Once the loan has been granted, a local monitor will keep in frequent contact with the people who have taken out the loan in order to monitor the progress of the project on behalf of Zero-Kap. The Zero-Kap project consultant will also remain closely involved in the project as a liaison officer.