Consistent with evolving corporate law in Tanzania, new enterprises of a WILMA-certified Community Development Association (CDA) will be organized as members or parts of a for-profit company called a Community Enterprise LLC. WilmaFund will act as a holding company of such LLCs in Tanzania, either holding its shares or contributing a membership interest (depending on the legal options available).
Following four years of preliminary study and practical experiments, during which a few WilmaFund enterprises have started operations in WILMA-certified CDAs, WilmaFund is preparing to scale up. Under its proposed investment plan as detailed in the Projections Table (PDF, 148kb), WilmaFund will engage in providing equity financing for projects that meet its investment criteria. These projects may be the initial businesses of new Community Enterprise LLCs, or they may be additional enterprises being formed by LLCs that already exist. During their initial five years of existence, Community Enterprise LLCs will be majority-owned by WilmaFund. Over subsequent years, as its role in providing management services to established LLCs becomes less, WilmaFund will seek to divest its ownership to other investors at fair market value, giving preference to the hosting CDAs and other local stakeholders.
In addition to identifying investment opportunities, WilmaFund emphasizes pre-investment planning and capacity building for the projects (enterprises) to be financed. The identification and support of local entrepreneurial leadership, which is central to WILMA's objective, is a core activity. Assisted by WILMA and local institutes with which WILMA cooperates (for example, Endeavor Global Inc. may set up an Endeavor Affiliate in Tanzania to identify and support outstanding entrepreneurs), WilmaFund will oversee and support the management of enterprises that is finances during an incubation period typically running five years.