We’re giving our lending tech away for free to non-profits and DFIs

If you’re a non-profit or development finance institution (DFI), you probably already know what it feels like to stretch every dollar. Running a lending program on limited resources is difficult enough. Doing it while trying to serve people who are considered high-risk or unbankable by traditional lenders makes it even harder. You are lending to people who have been overlooked by mainstream financial institutions: farmers working on small plots of land, youth trying to start a business with no collateral, market traders operating outside the formal economy.

These are borrowers who have the drive but not the documentation, the potential but not the paperwork. And yet, you find ways to support them by raising funds from donors, securing grants, and partnering with institutions that believe in your mission. The need is real and urgent, ergo, your work is essential.

But no matter how well-intentioned or well-funded your program is, one thing keeps coming up as a major barrier: technology. Most of the non-profits we’ve spoken to don’t have access to a proper lending platform. They manage applications on Google Forms, track repayments on spreadsheets, and approve loans through endless email threads. Some use legacy systems that were never built for the kind of lending they’re doing. Others try to patch together generic tools to fit a credit operation. And when things start to grow, these setups begin to fall apart. The result is that your team gets buried in admin work, your operations become harder to manage, and your impact hits a blocker.

Building your own platform is expensive and time-consuming. Most organizations in this space don’t have access to in-house engineers or a big enough budget to work with developers. On the other hand, buying an off-the-shelf system built for banks or fintechs doesn’t make sense either. The cost is usually too high, and the features are not flexible enough for the kind of lending you’re doing. So you’re stuck with manual processes that eat into your time, slow down disbursements, and make it harder to serve more people. We’ve heard these stories again and again, from organizations big and small.

And honestly, we think that’s wrong. You shouldn’t be forced to choose between staying small or spending money you don’t have just to get basic infrastructure in place. The work you’re doing matters. It should be easier to run a lending program if you’re already doing the hard part of reaching people most others won’t. That’s why we’ve decided to do something about it.

Introducing Lendsqr for Non-Profit

Lendsqr for Non-Profit is our way of supporting organizations that are doing some of the most important, yet often overlooked, work in the credit space. It’s a fully functional version of our lending platform, made available completely free to nonprofits and development finance institutions (DFIs) that are focused on delivering loans with impact, whether that means offering subsidized interest rates, working with high-risk or informal borrowers, or operating in communities that traditional lenders avoid.

This isn’t a temporary grant, a product trial, or a limited rollout. It’s the same technology stack we’ve built and refined over the years for commercial lenders. It handles everything from loan applications to credit decisioning, borrower onboarding to repayment tracking. The only difference is that we’ve taken off the price tag for organizations whose mission aligns with something we care deeply about: building fair and inclusive access to credit.

We know that some of these institutions might actually have the budget for lending software. That’s not the point. We’re not stepping in because they’re financially incapable. We’re stepping in because we believe that money shouldn’t be a barrier to doing more good. If an organization is already going the extra mile to serve communities most lenders won’t touch, then we want to take at least one thing off their plate: the cost and complexity of tech infrastructure. We’ve been helped ourselves, and we know what it means to be given a head start. This is our way of paying it forward, not out of charity, but out of shared purpose.

So whether you’re running a small community lending program with a few hundred borrowers or managing a national fund for micro-enterprises, this version of Lendsqr is yours to use. Fully capable. Fully supported. And fully free for the people doing the work that matters.

Why are we doing this?

Because we’ve been helped by people like you throughout the course of our journey. When we started Lendsqr, we didn’t walk into rooms with unlimited capital or expensive cloud infrastructure. In fact, we got subsidized infrastructure hosting from AWS, got grants from Microsoft, Google, and the Nigerian government when we were still figuring things out. OnePipe, one of our earliest supporters, offered help when we needed it most. These weren’t just nice gestures; they were interventions that made it possible for us to get on our feet and stay focused on building. Without that support, we would have moved slower, spent more, and maybe not gotten here at all.

So yes, we worked hard. But we also got help. And that kind of support changes how you see the world. It made us realize that if you’re lucky enough to build something that works, you should use it to lift others who are also trying to solve difficult problems in their own corners of the world. We didn’t forget how those early boosts shaped our journey. That’s what Lendsqr for Non-Profit is about. It’s not a PR campaign or a marketing experiment. It’s simply our way of putting our tools in the hands of people who need them to do work that benefits far more people than we could ever reach alone.

We also think it’s time to be honest about what financial inclusion really means. Real inclusion is about reaching the people who have been outside the system for so long that they’ve stopped expecting anything better. It’s about the small business owner who has never qualified for a loan because she doesn’t have collateral. The cooperative in a rural area that pools resources to help members grow. The young person who’s banked but still credit invisible.

And when we look at who’s actually showing up for these people, it’s not always the big lenders with the glossy branding. It’s non-profits and DFIs with lean teams, modest budgets, and an unbelievable amount of determination. They’re figuring out how to lend where others won’t. They’re making credit work in places with no digital infrastructure. They’re building trust where formal systems have failed. That kind of work deserves real support, not just applause from the sidelines.

So if you’re lending to someone in a rural community, an informal market, or anywhere that’s been neglected by mainstream finance, we don’t think you should be spending millions just to make it possible. The technology shouldn’t be the hardest part of your journey. It should be the part you don’t have to worry about. We’re making sure it is.

What you get access to

This isn’t a stripped or watered-down version. What we’re offering through Lendsqr for Non-Profit is the same full version of our lending platform used by banks, fintechs, and other commercial lenders. It’s the version we’ve spent years building, testing, and improving in real-world lending environments. The platform is designed to handle scale, to adapt to different types of lenders, and to support both digital-first operations and field-based lending models. And now, it’s available at no cost to the non-profits and DFIs doing impactful work.

End-to-end lending infrastructure:  Lendsqr gives you everything you need to run a loan program from start to finish. You can onboard borrowers, accept applications, run credit checks or reviews, disburse loans, monitor repayments, and manage delinquencies, all in one platform. The system keeps your entire loan book organized and up to date, no matter how many moving parts you’re managing. Whether your team is reviewing ten applications a week or hundreds a day, Lendsqr handles it without forcing you to add layers of manual intervention or jump between platforms.

Custom lending models: We understand that non-profits and DFIs don’t always lend like traditional banks. You may have programs where loans are backed by guarantors, not collateral. You might require borrowers to contribute some savings before accessing credit. You may lend to groups rather than individuals, or use community-based assessments instead of formal credit scores. Our platform is built to accommodate these models. You can configure your own workflows, approval logic, and repayment terms without needing developers or extra software. If your lending process involves human judgment, field visits, or layered approvals, the system supports that too.

Support for offline borrowers: A lot of your borrowers might not own smartphones. They might not have internet access, or they may live in areas where digital onboarding isn’t an option. That doesn’t mean they should be excluded. Lendsqr is built to support offline lending activities. Field agents can manually collect borrower details, upload loan information in bulk, and sync data later when they return to areas with connectivity. The tools are flexible enough for agents working in remote regions and simple enough to use without specialized training. 

Built-in credit modules and customizable decisioning: Lendsqr gives you control over how you assess and approve borrowers. If you have your own scoring model (based on business history, savings patterns, group guarantees, or something else) you can set it up in the system. If you prefer a hybrid approach, where technology handles the first layer and humans make the final call, that works too. We don’t force you to use a predefined credit score or lock you into a rigid approval flow. Instead, we give you the structure and flexibility to apply the decision rules that align with your goals and risk appetite.

Full portfolio management: It’s one thing to disburse loans. It’s another thing entirely to stay on top of repayments, detect problems early, and manage your portfolio in a way that’s transparent and sustainable. Lendsqr gives you real-time visibility into your entire portfolio. You can see how many loans are active, how many are overdue, what collections look like, and where the gaps are. The dashboards are built to surface issues before they escalate, so you can act quickly and stay accountable to your funders, partners, and communities. Whether you’re reporting to donors or your board, the numbers are always ready and accurate.

Who qualifies?

Lendsqr for Non-Profit is meant for organizations that are serious about using credit to drive real, long-term impact. If your work is focused on making finance accessible to people or communities who are often left out of the formal financial system, this program was designed with you in mind. We’re looking to support institutions that already understand the power of credit, and who are trying to expand that power to people who need it most—whether that’s smallholder farmers, low-income households, microbusiness owners, women entrepreneurs, or youth with limited access to traditional banking services.

You don’t have to be a large organization with a massive budget or national footprint. We’re equally open to smaller groups who are doing deep, community-level work. As long as you’re registered, impact-driven, and already providing or planning to provide access to credit at subsidized or non-commercial terms, we want to hear from you. This includes non-profits, development finance institutions, and social lenders who structure their lending not just around profit but around mission, sustainability, and inclusion.

Your lending program should be tied to broader goals of economic development or financial inclusion. That could mean giving working capital to women-led cooperatives, providing business loans to youth in informal settlements, or supporting rural communities with productive asset finance. You might already have a credit program running and need better tools to scale it, or you might be preparing to launch one soon and want to start with the right infrastructure. Either way, we’re here to help you do it properly.

There are no hidden conditions. No insider channels or paid shortcuts. You apply, we review it, and if your work aligns with us, we’ll get you onboarded at no cost. Our team will walk you through the setup and support you as you move from scattered systems to a proper digital lending operation. We’re not promising perfection, but we are promising partnership. If you’re doing the work, we’ll meet you halfway.

We’re already live and making a difference 

One of the first organizations to adopt Lendsqr for Non-Profit is FATE Foundation, a well-established non-profit in Nigeria that has been supporting entrepreneurs for over two decades.

FATE Foundation was founded in 2000 by Fola Adeola, co-founder of GTBank, with the vision of helping Nigerians start, grow, and sustain successful businesses. Through a mix of training, mentorship, and access to funding, they’ve helped thousands of entrepreneurs and small businesses build resilience and create jobs. An important part of that support includes access to loans, usually at single-digit interest rates and often targeted at micro and small enterprises that would otherwise be excluded from traditional financing.

For years, FATE managed their loan programs using manual processes. Applications came in through forms and emails. Approvals were tracked across spreadsheets. Monitoring repayments required hours of back-and-forth coordination. It worked, but it was resource-heavy, slow to scale, and difficult to manage efficiently as their programs expanded. Like many other non-profits, they didn’t lack impact or intent, they simply didn’t have the right tools.

With the switch to our platform, FATE Foundation was able to fully digitize their lending operations. Loan applications are now submitted and reviewed through a centralized system. Repayment tracking happens in real-time. Reports that used to take hours are now generated instantly. Their team has more time to focus on outreach and program delivery, and their loan recipients get a faster, more transparent experience. They didn’t have to pay for any of it. And they didn’t need to hire an engineering team to get it set up.

This is the kind of impact we’re aiming for. We want  to quietly, consistently equip organizations that are already doing the work, so they can do it better, faster, and with less stress. FATE Foundation is proof that it’s possible, and they’re just the beginning.

Ready to get started?

If this sounds like something your organization needs, we’d love to hear from you. Just reach out directly to us at [email protected], and we’ll take it from there. Whether you’re running an existing credit program or just getting ready to launch one, our team will guide you through what’s needed and help you figure out the best way to get started with Lendsqr for Non-Profit.

There’s no deadline to beat and no hoops to jump through. It’s an open invitation to any mission-driven organization that’s using credit as a tool for impact. If you’re doing the work, we’re here to support it.