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Kiva Birthday Parties
Oct 10, 2008
On Wednesday night, the Kiva on-line community went off-line.
Kivans everywhere logged out of their Kiva accounts, closed their browsers, even shut down their computers in some cases, and headed to local pubs to meet each other face-to-face and share some good cheer.
The occasion was Kiva's 3rd birthday, and the celebrations took place during happy hour in locations all over the country... from New York, Boston, Washington DC, and Atlanta on the east coast to Austin, Omaha, and San Francisco out west.
The San Francisco party, which was downtown at a bar called Royal Exchange, attracted over 100 lenders (and lenders-to-be). Kiva staff loves a good party, so most of us were there and we brought our friends. We were psyched to finally meet a few of our favorite Kiva Friends too (from kivafriends.org).
I heard today from Shelby in Boston that the event he held in Cambridge was quite well-attended by Harvard students... apparently the lure of Kiva AND Karaoke was too strong to resist.
Sabrina in Washington DC emailed me pictures from the Kiva party she and Joe hosted, and I have to say I'm impressed by the amount of Kiva clothing that was pulled out of the closet for the event.
Tanaya and Sophia also sent pictures. Tanaya and a couple of other Kiva supporters hosted a successful happy hour in Manhattan. Sophia, who hosted a happy hour in Austin, only sent one picture, but tells me she and the other 30 or so attendees had a great time.
They say a picture tells a thousand words, so I'll let the photos do the rest of the talking.
Happy Birthday Kiva!
-- posted by Lyndsey Erickson at 10:10 am PDT
Kivans everywhere logged out of their Kiva accounts, closed their browsers, even shut down their computers in some cases, and headed to local pubs to meet each other face-to-face and share some good cheer.
The occasion was Kiva's 3rd birthday, and the celebrations took place during happy hour in locations all over the country... from New York, Boston, Washington DC, and Atlanta on the east coast to Austin, Omaha, and San Francisco out west.
The San Francisco party, which was downtown at a bar called Royal Exchange, attracted over 100 lenders (and lenders-to-be). Kiva staff loves a good party, so most of us were there and we brought our friends. We were psyched to finally meet a few of our favorite Kiva Friends too (from kivafriends.org).
I heard today from Shelby in Boston that the event he held in Cambridge was quite well-attended by Harvard students... apparently the lure of Kiva AND Karaoke was too strong to resist.
Sabrina in Washington DC emailed me pictures from the Kiva party she and Joe hosted, and I have to say I'm impressed by the amount of Kiva clothing that was pulled out of the closet for the event.
Tanaya and Sophia also sent pictures. Tanaya and a couple of other Kiva supporters hosted a successful happy hour in Manhattan. Sophia, who hosted a happy hour in Austin, only sent one picture, but tells me she and the other 30 or so attendees had a great time.
They say a picture tells a thousand words, so I'll let the photos do the rest of the talking.
Happy Birthday Kiva!
San Francisco Happy Hour, hosted by Kiva Staff, at The Royal Exchange
Washington DC Happy Hour, hosted by Sabrina and Joe, at Front Page
New York City Happy Hour, hosted by Tanaya, Aditi, and Purvi, at The Volstead
Austin Happy Hour, hosted by Sophia, at Six Lounge
-- posted by Lyndsey Erickson at 10:10 am PDT
Kiva 3 Year Birthday Bash
Oct 1, 2008
Kiva is turning 3 in October! To celebrate, Kiva is hosting happy hours in major cities on Wednesday, October 8th and we want you to attend.
New York: The Volstead, 125 E 54rd St (between Lex and Third) starting at 6 p.m. Click here to view the Facebook invite.
Washington DC: Front Page (Next to Dupont Metro Station), 1333 New Hampshire Ave NW starting at 7 p.m. Click here to view the Facebook invite.
San Francisco: Royal Exchange, 301 Sacramento St (Embarcadero BART stop) starting at 6 p.m. There will be two drink specials - $3 pints of Widmer Oktoberfest and Gordon Biersch. Click here to view the Facebook invite.
Boston: Tommy Doyles (Harvard Square area), 96 Winthrop St, Cambridge, MA NOTE: The Boston event will start at 9 p.m. on Wed and there will be $2 draft Coors Lights and $5 international mixed drinks: Margaritas, pisco sours, and Mai Tais. Click here to view the Facebook invite.
Austin: Six Lounge, 117 West 4th St (between Congress Ave and Colorado St) starting at 6 p.m. Click here to view the Facebook invite.
For those of you not in these cities, we encourage you to host a celebration of your own. Being an organizer entails picking a location, getting the word out, and handing out fliers (see draft attached) at the event. Go to the dedicated discussion thread on Kivafriends.org entitled 'Kiva 3 Year Birthday bash' by clicking here to see if another lender is hosting one in your area, and if not, organize a celebration and invite your friends.
Kiva's 3rd birthday is a perfect opportunity to meet other Kiva lenders and to spread the word about Kiva. Attend a Kiva Birthday Party happy hour and reach out to your friends, family, and neighbors to attend too.
Celebrations can take any form -- from an ice cream social, to a neighborhood party, to a get-together at a local coffee shop, to a happy hour at a local bar, to a gathering at your home.
At these celebrations, we would love for you to get out the vote for Kiva in the American Express Members Project. Kiva is in the final 5 in the competition for the grand prize of $1.5 million! Voting is open now until October 13th.
The grand prize could enable $30 million more loans to fund 60,000 more entrepreneurs so that they can lift themselves out of poverty. Click here to vote.
Voting for Kiva and getting out the vote is the biggest thing you could do for Kiva this year and it is the best birthday gift Kiva could ask for!
You can make a difference. You can help Kiva enable more loans, to change more lives.
Thanks,
Lyndsey
lyndsey@kiva.org
PS: Please print out copies of the flier above and hand them out at the Kiva celebration you attend! If you can't print the flier by clicking on the image above, go to Kivafriends.org by clicking here and you will find the flier attached to the post entitled 'Birthday Bash Details'. Thanks!
-- posted by Lyndsey Erickson at 09:10 am PDT
Your click could mean $1.5 million for Kiva
Sep 18, 2008
By now you may have gotten an email from Matt with the great news -- thanks to your nominations, Kiva has been voted into the Top 25 in the American Express Members Project online competition!
Chosen out of 1,190 projects, Kiva's entry, Loans that Change Lives, is now eligible to win the grand prize of $1.5 million in funding. As you can imagine, this is a huge sum for a non-profit like Kiva! The project with the most votes receives $1.5 million, 2nd receives $500,000, 3rd $300,000, and 4th and 5th $100,000. The grand prize would enable Kiva to reach an additional 60,000 developing world entrepreneurs around the globe.
Now we need your help to move Kiva to the final round!
If you haven't already, here's what you can do to help:
- American Express Cardmembers, vote today. Voting is easy and it doesn't cost a thing. Click here to vote.
- If you're not a Cardmember, getting the word out to your networks makes a huge difference. Click here to promote Kiva's project to your networks of family, friends, co-workers, and alumni groups.
- Facebook Users, click here to add the Kiva Video Application (seen below).
- If you are not a Facebook User, you can still share the Kiva Video Application (seen below). Watch it, click on 'Share' on the top of the video, and follow the instructions.
$1 donated to Kiva's Operational Expenses has led to $8 in loans. If Kiva wins $1.5 million, this could help facilitate $12 million of additional loans to 24,000 entrepreneurs. The beauty of the Kiva model is that when an entrepreneur repays his/her loan, the lender can re-invest it, which happens 60% of the time. Over the next 10 years, your vote for Kiva could help generate $30 million dollars in loans to 60,000 developing world entrepreneurs around the globe.
This round of voting is open until September 29th. If we can mobilize to vote with the same energy and determination that we've shown in fighting poverty, I'm confident that we can move Kiva to the final round!
-- posted by Lyndsey Erickson at 10:09 pm PDT
Chosen out of 1,190 projects, Kiva's entry, Loans that Change Lives, is now eligible to win the grand prize of $1.5 million in funding. As you can imagine, this is a huge sum for a non-profit like Kiva! The project with the most votes receives $1.5 million, 2nd receives $500,000, 3rd $300,000, and 4th and 5th $100,000. The grand prize would enable Kiva to reach an additional 60,000 developing world entrepreneurs around the globe.
Now we need your help to move Kiva to the final round!
If you haven't already, here's what you can do to help:
- American Express Cardmembers, vote today. Voting is easy and it doesn't cost a thing. Click here to vote.
- If you're not a Cardmember, getting the word out to your networks makes a huge difference. Click here to promote Kiva's project to your networks of family, friends, co-workers, and alumni groups.
- Facebook Users, click here to add the Kiva Video Application (seen below).
- If you are not a Facebook User, you can still share the Kiva Video Application (seen below). Watch it, click on 'Share' on the top of the video, and follow the instructions.
$1 donated to Kiva's Operational Expenses has led to $8 in loans. If Kiva wins $1.5 million, this could help facilitate $12 million of additional loans to 24,000 entrepreneurs. The beauty of the Kiva model is that when an entrepreneur repays his/her loan, the lender can re-invest it, which happens 60% of the time. Over the next 10 years, your vote for Kiva could help generate $30 million dollars in loans to 60,000 developing world entrepreneurs around the globe.
This round of voting is open until September 29th. If we can mobilize to vote with the same energy and determination that we've shown in fighting poverty, I'm confident that we can move Kiva to the final round!
-- posted by Lyndsey Erickson at 10:09 pm PDT
101 Cookbooks: The power of online communities
Sep 18, 2008
Every day, around 1.4 million new blog posts, commentaries, essays and observations enter the worldwide blogosphere. On September 3rd, one particular blog post led to one of the largest lending teams on Kiva.
101 Cookbooks is an online "recipe journal" of healthy, natural snacks and sweets. On September 3rd, Heidi, the author of 101 Cookbooks and an avid Kiva user, invited her readers to join the newly created 101 Cookbooks lending team on Kiva. She explained how Kiva works, provided step-by-step instructions for joining a lending team and set a team lending goal. By the end of the first day, over 100 lenders, many of them new to Kiva, joined the 101 Cookbooks lending team. After two weeks, there are more than 400 team members who have made a significant impact on fighting world poverty.
The success of the 101 Cookbooks lending team demonstrates the potential impact online communities can have on social issues. A virtual cooking blog to a virtual community has led to over $7,500 in loans to real entrepreneurs in the developing world. Just as Kiva leverages technology to connect willing lenders to qualified entrepreneurs, Kiva users can leverage technology to further Kiva's mission. We believe the same model can be replicated by other blogs and online communities. Thank you, 101 Cookbooks, for using your voice to effect change. In what other ways can communities partner with Kiva to help alleviate poverty?
-- posted by Nick Baer at 03:09 pm PDT
101 Cookbooks is an online "recipe journal" of healthy, natural snacks and sweets. On September 3rd, Heidi, the author of 101 Cookbooks and an avid Kiva user, invited her readers to join the newly created 101 Cookbooks lending team on Kiva. She explained how Kiva works, provided step-by-step instructions for joining a lending team and set a team lending goal. By the end of the first day, over 100 lenders, many of them new to Kiva, joined the 101 Cookbooks lending team. After two weeks, there are more than 400 team members who have made a significant impact on fighting world poverty.
The success of the 101 Cookbooks lending team demonstrates the potential impact online communities can have on social issues. A virtual cooking blog to a virtual community has led to over $7,500 in loans to real entrepreneurs in the developing world. Just as Kiva leverages technology to connect willing lenders to qualified entrepreneurs, Kiva users can leverage technology to further Kiva's mission. We believe the same model can be replicated by other blogs and online communities. Thank you, 101 Cookbooks, for using your voice to effect change. In what other ways can communities partner with Kiva to help alleviate poverty?
-- posted by Nick Baer at 03:09 pm PDT
Having a hard time making a loan?
Sep 17, 2008
If you're like most Kiva Lenders, you've been coming back to the website most days to watch this phenomenon of an "empty site" which has been taking place over the past 10 days.
If you're not sure what's going on, then you probably didn't receive this month's newsletter, or read Roma's previous blogs about Partial Loan Repayments (scroll down the page to catch up on what's been happening around here.)
Since we launched Partial Loan Repayments - essentially giving lenders access to their loan money as it is repaid, rather than waiting until the whole loan has been repaid - Kiva Lenders have been turning that money right back around and lending it to another entrepreneur.
The effect on the website is that loans are being funded more quickly than usual, and at a pace faster than our Field Partners are posting up their new funding needs.
The important thing to know is that every Field Partner (we have 89 current Field Partners) has a monthly "Fundraising Limit". This is the amount which we allow the Field Partner to "fundraise" in any given month. This number is determined by the past and ongoing due diligence we conduct, which includes looking at their current portfolio size, their current resources, their ability and desire to expand, their current debt capital sources alternative to Kiva, their human resources etc. This ensure that we are finding a funding limit which is comfortable to both the Field Partner and Kiva, so that we have a stable partnership and the Field Partner's operations are both predictable and stable.
So, if the total loans our Field Partners are fundraising, is less than the total loan funds coming in from YOU, then we see the phenomenon which is taking place right now.
Of course, our Field Partners right now are ecstatic as they're watching the loans fly off the site! We have one Field Partner who at times had taken the whole month for their monthly total to be completely fundraised, who has recently seen their entire month's worth of loans raised in just one week, and it really sends a strong message around the world that lenders are here to offer continued support to entrepreneurs. There could not be a more positive message to our Field Partners than to see Kiva Lenders rushing to grab each loan as soon as it is posted!
We're not sure when things will balance out, because it really all depends on the growth of the Kiva Lender community, and to be honest the Kiva office really buzzes when we see this happening.
We're watching it closely, and we hope you are too! This is the result of creating a website that allows us to see activity in real-time, to watch loans get funded by real people as the funds are sent, to watch new loans posted by microfinance staff around the world and to now get repayments back as they are received.
What we do know is that there are 89 microfinance institutions around the world that hear your roar of support - and that is no small feat.
(To sign up for the Kiva newsletter, log in to your account and change your Email Preferences under My Account.)
-- posted by Fiona Ramsey at 02:09 pm PDT
If you're not sure what's going on, then you probably didn't receive this month's newsletter, or read Roma's previous blogs about Partial Loan Repayments (scroll down the page to catch up on what's been happening around here.)
Since we launched Partial Loan Repayments - essentially giving lenders access to their loan money as it is repaid, rather than waiting until the whole loan has been repaid - Kiva Lenders have been turning that money right back around and lending it to another entrepreneur.
The effect on the website is that loans are being funded more quickly than usual, and at a pace faster than our Field Partners are posting up their new funding needs.
The important thing to know is that every Field Partner (we have 89 current Field Partners) has a monthly "Fundraising Limit". This is the amount which we allow the Field Partner to "fundraise" in any given month. This number is determined by the past and ongoing due diligence we conduct, which includes looking at their current portfolio size, their current resources, their ability and desire to expand, their current debt capital sources alternative to Kiva, their human resources etc. This ensure that we are finding a funding limit which is comfortable to both the Field Partner and Kiva, so that we have a stable partnership and the Field Partner's operations are both predictable and stable.
So, if the total loans our Field Partners are fundraising, is less than the total loan funds coming in from YOU, then we see the phenomenon which is taking place right now.
Of course, our Field Partners right now are ecstatic as they're watching the loans fly off the site! We have one Field Partner who at times had taken the whole month for their monthly total to be completely fundraised, who has recently seen their entire month's worth of loans raised in just one week, and it really sends a strong message around the world that lenders are here to offer continued support to entrepreneurs. There could not be a more positive message to our Field Partners than to see Kiva Lenders rushing to grab each loan as soon as it is posted!
We're not sure when things will balance out, because it really all depends on the growth of the Kiva Lender community, and to be honest the Kiva office really buzzes when we see this happening.
We're watching it closely, and we hope you are too! This is the result of creating a website that allows us to see activity in real-time, to watch loans get funded by real people as the funds are sent, to watch new loans posted by microfinance staff around the world and to now get repayments back as they are received.
What we do know is that there are 89 microfinance institutions around the world that hear your roar of support - and that is no small feat.
(To sign up for the Kiva newsletter, log in to your account and change your Email Preferences under My Account.)
-- posted by Fiona Ramsey at 02:09 pm PDT
A Warm Welcome to the Kiva Fellows Trainees Class KF6
Sep 16, 2008
Congratulations to all Kiva Fellows Trainees who have made it through the second long day of training for the KF6 Class.
For those who don't know, Kiva Fellows are volunteers who work with Kiva Field Partners for a minimum of 10 weeks (some as long as 1 year!) to contribute towards the partnership in a myriad of ways. Kiva runs training programs for Kiva Fellows four times a year, and we currently have 30 trainees for Class KF6 (obviously KF1 is the first group of Fellows we had) at Kiva HQ in San Francisco.
Guaranteed it will be a long week as there's a lot to learn, but also guaranteed is that it will be worth it!
Here's a pic of Hind Tazi, Microfinance Partnerships Manager for Middle East and North Africa, running one of the break-out sessions:
-- posted by Fiona Ramsey at 05:09 pm PDT
For those who don't know, Kiva Fellows are volunteers who work with Kiva Field Partners for a minimum of 10 weeks (some as long as 1 year!) to contribute towards the partnership in a myriad of ways. Kiva runs training programs for Kiva Fellows four times a year, and we currently have 30 trainees for Class KF6 (obviously KF1 is the first group of Fellows we had) at Kiva HQ in San Francisco.
Guaranteed it will be a long week as there's a lot to learn, but also guaranteed is that it will be worth it!
Here's a pic of Hind Tazi, Microfinance Partnerships Manager for Middle East and North Africa, running one of the break-out sessions:
-- posted by Fiona Ramsey at 05:09 pm PDT
Lending Teams for Events: Team number 301 shows you can support your friends and borrowers at the same time
Sep 9, 2008
Team number 301 -- Don and Jims Family and Friends -- is a cool lending team I think. This team was established so that supportive friends and family of Don and Jim could celebrate Don and Jims 25th year together, and now legal union, by making Kiva loans and attributing them to the lending team.
Don and Jim, retired and living in Mexico, are devout Kiva lenders. They lend because they have found the people in Mexico to be lovely, honest, and hard-working, and they want to support entrepreneurs in Mexico any way they can. Eight loans have already been made in under two weeks in celebration of Don and Jims union.
Others are using Kiva for events too. I have talked to a couple who, instead of giving out traditional wedding favors, is planning to make loans on behalf of their wedding guests; they are creating a lending team where guests can go and view the loans that were made. Another lender is setting up a team for his 50th birthday. He figures he already has everything he needs and would rather his guest make Kiva loans than buy him a gift.
Supporting your friends by supporting a borrower in the developing world -- pretty cool.
PS -- In other news, football season is underway and I am just waiting for more fan lending teams to get up and running, and for the friendly competitions to begin. Maybe those who would be interested have been too busy setting up their Fantasy Football teams. As a New England Patriots fan (I may live in San Francisco but I am from Boston!), I am starting to feel that I am going to have a better chance winning this season with the Patriots lending team.
-- posted by Lyndsey Erickson at 10:09 am PDT
Don and Jim, retired and living in Mexico, are devout Kiva lenders. They lend because they have found the people in Mexico to be lovely, honest, and hard-working, and they want to support entrepreneurs in Mexico any way they can. Eight loans have already been made in under two weeks in celebration of Don and Jims union.
Others are using Kiva for events too. I have talked to a couple who, instead of giving out traditional wedding favors, is planning to make loans on behalf of their wedding guests; they are creating a lending team where guests can go and view the loans that were made. Another lender is setting up a team for his 50th birthday. He figures he already has everything he needs and would rather his guest make Kiva loans than buy him a gift.
Supporting your friends by supporting a borrower in the developing world -- pretty cool.
PS -- In other news, football season is underway and I am just waiting for more fan lending teams to get up and running, and for the friendly competitions to begin. Maybe those who would be interested have been too busy setting up their Fantasy Football teams. As a New England Patriots fan (I may live in San Francisco but I am from Boston!), I am starting to feel that I am going to have a better chance winning this season with the Patriots lending team.
-- posted by Lyndsey Erickson at 10:09 am PDT
Photos from the Field in Bogor, Indonesia
Sep 6, 2008
This past week, I had the good fortune to meet with BAIK - a microfinance institution located in Bogor, Indonesia that is looking to partner with Kiva (Bogor is located about an hour South of Jakarta by train). BAIK is part of PERAMU, an umbrella organization that founded a microfinance institution (BAIK), a cooperative & rural bank all in the same region of Bogor to better serve the needs of the working poor in the region.
BAIK utilizes the Grameen model of microfinance in that it organizes poor women into borrowing groups & disburses loans through these groups. BAIK has a very strong pro-poor focus as they charge ZERO interest on all first loans to their borrowers. In addition, BAIK follows the Islamic banking rules of Shariya as they lend in a region heavily populated by Muslims.
Anyways, here are some photos their staff took while I was visiting & thought I would share it with everyone:
1. Here's a photo of 20 borrowers who work in the Tamaransi district - all of them are shoemakers who make about 20,000 Rupiah (~$2.25USD) in profit for every 20 shoes they sell. The field officer is collecting the weekly repayments for this group - no loans were disbursed in observance of the Islamic Holy Month of Ramadan.
2. At the Tamaransi Field Office of BAIK.
3. Me with the loan officers of BAIK's Tamaransi Field Office. Some of the loan officers used to be borrowers of BAIK & now are loan officers who help other women receive loans from BAIK!
4. Observed while traveling to the Tamaransi Field Office - obviously the definition of "worker safety" is a bit different than ours!
Darren Miao
Microfinance Partnership Manager - Asia Pacific Region
-- posted by Darren Miao at 07:09 am PDT
BAIK utilizes the Grameen model of microfinance in that it organizes poor women into borrowing groups & disburses loans through these groups. BAIK has a very strong pro-poor focus as they charge ZERO interest on all first loans to their borrowers. In addition, BAIK follows the Islamic banking rules of Shariya as they lend in a region heavily populated by Muslims.
Anyways, here are some photos their staff took while I was visiting & thought I would share it with everyone:
1. Here's a photo of 20 borrowers who work in the Tamaransi district - all of them are shoemakers who make about 20,000 Rupiah (~$2.25USD) in profit for every 20 shoes they sell. The field officer is collecting the weekly repayments for this group - no loans were disbursed in observance of the Islamic Holy Month of Ramadan.
2. At the Tamaransi Field Office of BAIK.
3. Me with the loan officers of BAIK's Tamaransi Field Office. Some of the loan officers used to be borrowers of BAIK & now are loan officers who help other women receive loans from BAIK!
4. Observed while traveling to the Tamaransi Field Office - obviously the definition of "worker safety" is a bit different than ours!
Darren Miao
Microfinance Partnership Manager - Asia Pacific Region
-- posted by Darren Miao at 07:09 am PDT
Lending Teams: From zero to 400 in no time!
Sep 2, 2008Thank you to all of our lenders out there who have created or joined a Lending Team over the past week and who are now enjoying the new feature! With over 400 teams having been created so far, we could not be more excited about our lender community and the diversity of our lenders interests. There are teams for universities, businesses, religious affiliations, political affiliations, KivaFriends, and for cities and countries; there are even teams for Animal Lovers and Quilters!
To give you ideas about the types of teams you can join or create, we thought we would call attention to a few teams here:
- The North Carolina-based Redwoods Group, a specialty insurance provider to YMCAs and Jewish Community Organizations (JCOs), set up a team to reflect their commitment to corporate social responsibility
- The Edmonds United Methodist Church in Washington State has set up a lending team so that any member of the congregation can participate and so that the church can easily measure its collective impact
- The Witherell Family in Pennsylvania created a team so that relatives across the country can lend together, track each others lending interests, and communicate on the message board along the way
- There is a team for Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Kivans that is already having a large impact, with lots of members making loans in the very first week
- Students who are starting Campus Kiva chapters across the country have joined the Campus Kiva lending team, and have set up teams for their colleges/universities, to help coordinate and track their chapters activity
These are just a few examples of the kinds of teams you can join or create. The sky is the limit!
We are interested in making the new Lending Teams feature the best that it can be, so please contact us with any suggestions you have. We are listening and are anxiously awaiting your feedback.
-- posted by Lyndsey Erickson at 04:09 pm PDT
Two BIG steps for the Kiva website
Aug 28, 2008
If you?re a follower of Matt?s blog at all, what we?re doing today is old news to you:
http://www.socialedge.org/blogs/kiva-chronicles/archive/2008/08/26/liquidity-and-community
He?s explained what we?re doing far better than I ever could. To summarize what?s going on over the next couple days, we?re rolling out two new features which we think are good news for the Kiva website and for lenders:
1) Partial repayments
Until now, lenders had to wait until their loan completed its entire term before receiving one repayment that represented all of the money they had lent. From this point forward, we?re changing that so that Kiva Lenders will receive funds as they are paid back to Kiva. So, if Kiva receives a repayment for a loan and your percentage of the loan entitles you to $3.12 of that repayment, we will return that $3.12 to you immediately rather than waiting for your loan to come to term. This is nice from a lender perspective because lenders no longer have to wait as long before they receive repayments. Our aim here is to give lenders more to do on the site since they?ll have money to re-lend (or gift or withdraw or take some action on) more often. Plus, it?s just nice to get your money back faster.
2) Lending Teams & Community
Nick actually wrote a great blog post about this a few weeks ago, and now it?s official:
http://kivanews.blogspot.com/2008/08/new-lending-teams-feature.html
Our goal with this feature is to give lenders a new tool to share their Kiva experience with their own communities. It also helps showcase that Kiva itself is an emerging community: we?re all here because of a shared belief that ordinary people can actually make a difference in lessening the world?s poverty. That?s what makes Kiva such an amazing experience; it?s what brings new lenders to our site every day and it?s what makes this such an extraordinary community. Thanks for being a part of it.
Enjoy the new features and happy lending!
Note: You'll notice your loans repaid might be doing some crazy math through the end of the day, because of some logic that we're doing to make sure you correctly get all of the money you're entitled to. This should be resolved by end of day. Thanks for your patience.
-- posted by Roma Jhaveri at 11:08 am PDT
http://www.socialedge.org/blogs/kiva-chronicles/archive/2008/08/26/liquidity-and-community
He?s explained what we?re doing far better than I ever could. To summarize what?s going on over the next couple days, we?re rolling out two new features which we think are good news for the Kiva website and for lenders:
1) Partial repayments
Until now, lenders had to wait until their loan completed its entire term before receiving one repayment that represented all of the money they had lent. From this point forward, we?re changing that so that Kiva Lenders will receive funds as they are paid back to Kiva. So, if Kiva receives a repayment for a loan and your percentage of the loan entitles you to $3.12 of that repayment, we will return that $3.12 to you immediately rather than waiting for your loan to come to term. This is nice from a lender perspective because lenders no longer have to wait as long before they receive repayments. Our aim here is to give lenders more to do on the site since they?ll have money to re-lend (or gift or withdraw or take some action on) more often. Plus, it?s just nice to get your money back faster.
2) Lending Teams & Community
Nick actually wrote a great blog post about this a few weeks ago, and now it?s official:
http://kivanews.blogspot.com/2008/08/new-lending-teams-feature.html
Our goal with this feature is to give lenders a new tool to share their Kiva experience with their own communities. It also helps showcase that Kiva itself is an emerging community: we?re all here because of a shared belief that ordinary people can actually make a difference in lessening the world?s poverty. That?s what makes Kiva such an amazing experience; it?s what brings new lenders to our site every day and it?s what makes this such an extraordinary community. Thanks for being a part of it.
Enjoy the new features and happy lending!
Note: You'll notice your loans repaid might be doing some crazy math through the end of the day, because of some logic that we're doing to make sure you correctly get all of the money you're entitled to. This should be resolved by end of day. Thanks for your patience.
-- posted by Roma Jhaveri at 11:08 am PDT
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