Are you a registered charity and if not why not? No we are not a registered charity. We considered registering as a charity but it was difficult to know in what country or countries we would need to register. We need to budget to make a profit to allow us to cope with the inevitable unforeseen expenses such as credit card fraud and to help provide working capital for procurement. The "bottom line" is that our prices are the best available, because of our innovative commercial structure and volume operations. A registered charity normally benefits in that it is tax exempt and in some countries a donation by a taxpayer of that country triggers an additional amount from the tax authorities of that country. But charities also have costs and some despite their status are in fact large organisations run by career professionals.
Why do you operate out of the USA and not Zimbabwe? The USA has no foreign exchange controls so we are able to pay our suppliers quickly and without bureaucratic impediments this might not be the case in Zimbabwe. Google Checkout was the only card processing company that we could find willing to do business that involved Zimbabwe. Google transacts in US$ for a US based company or UK£ for a UK based company. We pay TM in US$ so the decision to be in the USA was a practical matter.
Why do you allow only $50 of the voucher as redeemable for cash?
We started off with food vouchers only. That is after all the normal business of TM. However as a community service TM agreed to allow cash withdrawal of up to $50 per recipient linked to an SA clients and this ceiling effectively means that we are not classified as a money transfer company. Credit card customers can request 100% in cash. Actual cash is scarce in Zimbabwe.