Data Collection of Micro loan Program Borrowers and Intermediary Lenders

Appendix C-3 Intermediary Introduction Email

Official SBA Introduction Email to Intermediaries

Evaluation of the Microloan Program

Small Business Administration (SBA)

409 3rd Street, S.W.

8th Floor

Washington, D.C. 20416

Dear < Name of the intermediary >

You are receiving this letter because you are an intermediary lender in the U.S. Small Business Administration’s (SBA) Microloan Program. The SBA has hired a small business research organization Optimal Solutions Group (Optimal) to conduct the evaluation of this program.

The objective of this evaluation is to examine the relationship of Microloan Program lending and technical assistance to 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 evaluation is voluntary and will take approximately 15 to 20 minutes. 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.

Optimal Solutions Group will contact you to ask for your participation in a Web survey or a brief telephone interview regarding your experiences with the Microloan Program.

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

• If you have any questions or concerns 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,

<signature>

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 (0.02 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.