Data Collection of Micro loan Program Borrowers and Intermediary Lenders

Appendix B-3 Borrower Introduction Email

Official Intermediary Introduction Email to Borrowers

Evaluation of the Microloan Program

<Name of the intermediary>

<Address of the intermediary>

< Intermediary telephone number>

Dear <Participant name>

You are receiving this letter because you participated in the U.S. Small Business Administration’s (SBA) Microloan Program. Under the Microloan Program, SBA makes direct loans to lenders like <Name of the intermediary> that, in turn, use the proceeds to make microloans and provide training and technical assistance to eligible Micro-borrowers. The Program aims to support job creation and retention for small businesses that would have difficulty securing funding from conventional sources.

The SBA has hired a small business research organization Optimal Solutions Group (Optimal) to conduct an evaluation of the Microloan Program. The objective of the Evaluation of the Microloan Program is to examine the relationship between Microloan Program activities of lending and technical assistance and business outcomes such as revenue, job creation, and survival. The results are expected to provide suggestions for improvements to this valuable small business assistance program.

Your participation in this study is completely voluntary and will last about 20 minutes. The SBA want to hear your voice and learn about your experiences with the program. Your opinion and feedback are important for the SBA’s efforts to improve its services to America’s small businesses. Optimal will contact you soon to ask you to participate in a web survey or a brief telephone interview regarding your experiences with the Microloan Program.

Your responses will be kept strictly confidential and your name will never be used in any reports produced from this study. All survey responses will be reported as aggregated statistics in form of averages, percentages, and frequency counts. All survey responses will be stored as de-identified information and these data will be provided to the SBA.

• For questions about this study, please contact Shay Meinzer at SBA, (202) 539-1429 or [email protected].

• If you have any questions about your participation in this study, please contact Optimal at (301) 918-7331 Ext. 131 or [email protected].

• For more information about the Microloan Program, please visit: https://www.sba.gov/loans-grants/see-what-sba-offers/sba-loan-programs/microloan-program%20

Thank you for your time and cooperation.

Sincerely,

< Intermediary contact name and title>

<signature>

cc: [email protected], [email protected]

According to the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, an agency may not conduct or sponsor, and a person is not required to respond to, a collection of information (such as this survey) unless it displays a valid OMB control number. The control number for this information collection is 3245-XXXX (Expires XX XX, 20XX). The time required to read this email is estimated to average 3 minutes (0.05 hours). However, the total time required for your participation is estimated at 20 minutes. Send comments regarding this burden estimate or any other aspect of this collection of information, including suggestions for reducing this burden, to U.S. Small Business Administration, Director, Records Management Division, 409 3rd St., S.W., Washington, DC 20416 and Desk Officer for the Small Business Administration, Office of Management and Budget, New Executive Building, Room 10202, Washington, DC 20503.