Kiva Blog

Join 4 community enterprises, Kiva, Hub Bay Area, GOOD Magazine and The David Brower Center, as we celebrate the remarkable achievement of 4 years and almost 100 million dollars in loans that Kiva has realized since its creation.  

 We're 4! 

November 3, 2009

6:30pm - 9:30pm

The David Brower Center

2150 Allston Way

Berkeley, CA

RSVP Required

 Global Beats From Around The World

Gaucho

Baba Ken and the Afrobeat Connexion

Erin Brazill

Shovelman 

 Delicious Food Provided by Bay Area Favorites

Slanted Door

Cafe Gratitude

Neighborhood Fruit

FeelGood Grilled Cheese

and many more...

 Drinks to Keep the Party Going

Barefoot Winery

Skyy Vodka

Drake's Brewing Company

 The Hub opened its' first US location in Berkeley, CA, joining a global network of 20 Hubs and 4500 social innovators around the Globe.  Visit them in their new home at The David Brower Center, a platinum LEED certified building of 28 organizations focused on social innovation.  We are also pleased to partner with GOOD Magazine, a catalyst for change through journalism and social media, to celebrate Kiva's 4th Birthday!  Join us on November 3rd to learn more about how to join a Kiva lending group, jump onboard as a Hub member, and support the GOOD cause, all in the beautiful backdrop of The David Brower Center accompanied by hundreds of our closest friends!

 Learn More About Us

Hub Bay Area

Kiva.org

GOOD Magazine

The David Brower Center

Make sure to RSVP here as space is limited!  

Stay Updated on Party News Through Facebook

Here's what we've updated in the latest release of Kiva.org:

It's no secret that Kiva's first four years have had unprecedented impact-- over $90 million has been raised from over 550,000 users reaching more than 230,000 entrepreneurs in 49 countries. Countless stories have emerged, new friendships have been forged, and lives have been changed. We're blown away by all the dedicated Field Partners and amazing Kiva Lenders who've made all of this possible.

But we believe this is only the beginning . . .

Kiva is about dreaming big. The entrepreneurs on the website dream about big business; our Field Partners dream about financially including all of the poor; Kiva Lenders dream about ending poverty.

Kiva was a big dream before the idea of lending to someone on the other side of the world became a reality. Now we have big dreams about making Kiva the world's hub for alleviating poverty.

We've set three strategic goals that we believe are both ambitious and achievable within the next 5-years:

1. Raise $1 billion in loans over the internet
2. Reach 2 million entrepreneurs around the world
3. Realize our own self-sufficiency in the process.

While these three goals don't describe how we will get there (which countries? will there be different types of loans?) or what changes we might make to improve the Kiva website to get there, what we are sure about is that we want to do it at a large scale. We think the potential of the partnerships forged through the Kiva community are infinite, and we want to dream as big as we believe you are.

Today, Kiva employs about 40 passionate people who find and monitor the field partners that bring entrepreneurs to the site, build and maintain the Kiva Web site, bring you responsive customer service, and make unique opportunities like the Kiva Fellows program possible. This includes team members in cities as far afield as Nairobi, Dakar, Lima, and Manilla. Thanks to Kiva lenders who also donate to Kiva when making a loan, Kiva has managed to become about 75% self-sufficient, with the remaining funds required to operate Kiva coming through generous grants from corporations and foundations.

In order to make our 5-year goals a reality, Kiva plans to launch a growth capital campaign to raise an additional $10 million to build the Kiva of the future. One that's built to scale and built to last. The campaign funds will be used to hire the engineers who will build an irresistible site at the forefront of Web technology, the microfinance professionals who will help us reach more entrepreneurs while managing risk to protect Kiva lenders, and the dedicated team members who will support the kind of organizational scale and longevity that we believe will make Kiva one of the most vital organizations engaged in one of the most important challenges of the 21st century-- the fight against global poverty.

In the coming months, we'll keep you updated on both our vision and our progress. We'll also show you how you can participate in our campaign through your own charitable contributions, by bringing your friends and family to Kiva, and through some exciting new ideas to come.

With your help, Kiva will demonstrate that no matter how big the scale of today's global challenges, everyday people really can make a difference!

Kiva’s Community Outreach Team is thrilled to announce the recent release of the Lending Team Playbook, spearheaded by Kiva Interns, Colette Kessler (content) and Hannah Day (design)!  A huge thanks goes out to all contributors, including star lending team captains, KivaFriends.org, and other committed volunteers. 

The Playbook is a step-by-step guide on how to deepen your involvement with Kiva by engaging your communities.  While it was created primarily for Lending Team Captains, we encourage all Kiva users to look to it for inspiration!  The Playbook will show you how you can help raise awareness on Kiva, on the Internet, and in the world beyond your doorstep.

If you don’t yet have your own Lending Team, consider starting one today by clicking here!  The Playbook can act as your guide to building a strong team and bringing Kiva to life for your family and friends.  For any questions about the Playbook or Lending Teams that you can’t find on the website, feel free to contact the Community Outreach Team at kivacommunity@gmail.com

Hi everyone,

Jonny Price here - first time, extremely nervous, blogger, and temporary Kiva volunteer.

Below is a link to a presentation including maps breaking down Kiva loans by country, and user penetration by country and US state. Amongst other things, it shows which countries have received the most loans since Kiva began, and which countries have the most Kiva users.




Loan Value by Country (slide 2)

1. I think the geographic diversity of Kiva loans to-date is great to see. The top 4 countries by loan value are as widespread as Cambodia, Peru, Tajikistan and Uganda!
2. With a combined population of around 2 billion people, the 2 biggest areas of opportunity for me would seem to be India and China, although I appreciate the regulatory constraints around involvement in these countries.
3. As someone interested in Africa, it is also interesting to see the gaps in southern Africa – e.g. Zambia, Zimbabwe, Angola, even South Africa.

Kiva users per million population by country (slide 5)

1. It is probably unsurprising to see the strongest penetration of Kiva users in North America, western Europe and Australasia.
2. Well done to Canada for leading the way with 861 Kiva users per million population. The US is in second place with those generous Scandinavians from Norway, Iceland and Sweden in third, fourth and sixth place respectively. With a population of only 20,000, the 3 Kiva users in the nation of Palau make it into twelfth place!
3. It is amazing to see that of the 196 countries I looked at, only 20 have no Kiva users! But if there’s anyone out there in Kiribati or Tuvalu, or if you’re the Pope (Vatican City), get lending!

Kiva users per million population by state (slide 13)

1. It is interesting to see the stark contrast between the strong penetration of Kiva users on the west and east coasts, and the weak penetration in the south.
2. Well done to the relatively numerous Kivans in DC, Alaska and Washington!

Enjoy!

Jonny

Dear Kiva Lenders --

PDS Extraordinaire Rico Munoz recently put together this map that shows all of Kiva's partners in the Philippines and where Kiva loans are having an effect. As you can see, your generous support is helping microentrepreneurs all across this wonderful country. So once again, on behalf of our Filipino partners, Rico & myself, thank you again for your dedication to helping make Kiva so successful in the Philippines

Happy lending!!

Darren Miao
Microfinance Partnership Manager - Asia Pacific

Rico Munoz
Partnership Development Specialist - Asia Pacific

On June 10th, the first loans to entrepreneurs in the United States were listed on Kiva. This has sparked an active discussion within the lender community about whether or not Kiva should facilitate loans to entrepreneurs in the U.S. This month's community conference call will focus on community feedback to the this issue.

In the month of May, you voted for your favorite Kiva Apps. Over 400 people voted, and the results are in!

#1 KIVA ALERTS: A suite of tools for facebook, mobile, and the web that tell alert you when loans of your interest appear on Kiva.

#2 KIVA WORLD: A live map of global Kiva loans in all stages: fundraising, funded, in repayment, and paid. Click on the markers to read more about the entrepreneur in the area.

#3 KIVA HEADS: Lets you browse loans on Facebook, and show off your loans in your Facebook page.

You can check out these applications and many others in the new App Gallery on Kiva. Thanks so much to all who voted and to all our developers for helping us build Kiva together.

In the website release that will go out shortly, there are a few changes worth calling out:

1. We were able to track down and fix the issue some people were having with their transaction history. What's more, we were able to make it much snappier
2. The entrepreneur profile page has changed. You will notice:
• A country section on the right side of the page, showing where the loan is going as well as some basic information about the country that the entrepreneur or group lives in
• We've been able to make the "Advanced View" of the repayment schedule even more transparent. Instead of converting the expected repayments from entrepreneurs to USD, we've kept the entrepreneur repayment schedules in their original, local currency form. Obviously, most entrepreneurs submit repayments to the Field Partners in their local currencies, not in USD, so we thought it would be worthwhile to display what actually happens on the ground.
3. The billing cycle has changed, meaning that lenders will get repayments sooner. You can read more about this and why we made this change in Giovanna's blog post Change to Billing Cycle.

Happy Lending!

When we made the change to our new Partner Administration system in November, we also created a longer billing cycle of 45 days. After working with this system for a few months we realized the longer billing cycle was overly complicated for Kiva’s Field Partners, leading to a lot of confusion, missed payments, etc. So we’re shortening the billing cycle to 30 days, which means that partners will now make payments to Kiva on the last day of the month, rather than the 15th of the following month. Shortening the billing cycle helps our Field Partners because making payments for the previous month is more intuitive, and fits in better with the way our Field Partners operate.

For lenders, this means you will get your repayments 15 days earlier! This change will take effect today (the site should be updated shortly to reflect the change), meaning you will receive repayments for April by June 1st. You will see that borrower schedules will now say that Repayment Information is "Available Jun 1", as opposed to "Available Jun 15" like it used to.

We are very excited about this change, as it is a win for both Field Partners and Kiva lenders; Field Partners will be able to manage payments to Kiva with less confusion, while lenders will get their repayments quicker!

We're upgrading the Kiva database this Thursday to better scale the site. To that end, we've scheduled a maintenance window from 7-9pm Pacific. If you see our maintenance page during that time, don't worry, we'll be back soon!

Kiva recently gained ownership of the official "kiva" name on Twitter, and we want to let people know where they can find us!  To help get the message out, we're launching a campaign this Friday the 15th as part of "Follow Friday."  For those not familiar, "Follow Friday" is a trend on the micro-blogging service Twitter where people recommend other users on Twitter that are worth Following.  We'd like you to recommend us to your friends this Friday, to help Kiva gain more traction in the Twitter community!