Field Partner Information Center

Overview | The Kiva Model | Become a Field Partner

Kiva enables microfinance institutions (MFIs) to raise 0% interest debt capital directly from social investors worldwide using the Internet. Since launching in October 2005, Kiva has grown to over 103 MFI partners in 48 countries.

Partnership Selection Requirements

Operational Requirements

In order to work effectively with Kiva, a microfinance institution must be able to:

Take digital photographs of borrowers
Write borrower and business descriptions
Write at least one journal entry per borrower (i.e. business update)
Upload photographs, business descriptions and journal entries to the Kiva website
Communicate via email and access the Internet regularly
Speak English, Spanish or French
Legally accept US dollar debt from a foreign lender and be able to repatriate funds
Manage foreign exchange risk

Minimum Criteria for Field Partners

In order to become a Field Partner with Kiva, a microfinance institution must, at a minimum:

Serve at least 1,000 borrowers with microfinance services
Have a history (at least 2-3 years) of lending to poor, excluded, and/or vulnerable people for the purpose of alleviating poverty or reducing vulnerability
Be registered as a legal entity in its country of operation
Have at least 1 year of financial audits

We also prefer that an MFI have a profile on the MIX Market (www.mixmarket.org).

In addition to the minimum criteria listed above, the partnership selection process is influenced by several additional factors, including: Kiva's need to balance risk in our portfolio, region, lender-demand and other factors. These factors change regularly but are important pieces in the approval process. If your organization fits the minimum criteria above, learn how to proceed in applying to become a Kiva Field Partner.

If your organization does not fit the criteria or operational requirements listed above, please check back with us again in the future when you do.

Benefits of Working with Kiva

0% interest debt capital
Increased exposure through the Kiva website
Kiva's transparent online platform exposes your work to a worldwide audience of 521,000+ social investors
Ability to benefit from foreign exchange "stop-loss" protection
Easy to pilot
Once approved, your organization can begin a Kiva pilot in less than a week
Low administrative cost
Factoring MFI staff administrative costs, data indicates this cost to be less than 1% as a factor of capital raised
Improved staff morale
Surveyed MFI staff love using Kiva. It is easy to learn, not time consuming and their work becomes appreciated on a global scale.

How it Works

Website Activity
MFI posts client profiles online on Kiva (can be done in batch, after funds have been disbursed to clients). Client Profiles are funded by social investors online (average loan size = $500 USD and client profiles are, on average, fully funded in 1.5 days)
Funds Transfer
Kiva aggregates the 0% interest USD capital and wires it to the MFI on a monthly basis. MFIs use Kiva's monthly funding to reduce their overall cost of capital and increase their own operational sustainability.
Reporting
Kiva's social investors provide subsidized capital in exchange for impact transparency. MFIs must report on the social impact of clients at least once per loan term.
Repayment
Kiva's software automatically reports payments based on expected client repayment schedule. MFI only needs to report when a payment is off schedule. Kiva automatically nets out reported repayments from new funds originated on the website each month, reducing the need for MFIs to wire funds back to Kiva.

Costs Associated with Working with Kiva

Interest rate Kiva charges
0% - Kiva passes 100% of the funds lent via social investors online. Kiva supports its low cost internet operations by charging social investors optional fees. Kiva has been a self sufficient 501(c)(3) U.S. non-profit organization since November 2006.
Cost of staff time to post borrower data
0.2-2% - Based on time-study data of MFIs using Kiva, the cost of staff time to post and maintain each client profile on Kiva ranges from < $1 USD to $10 USD. The average Kiva loan raised per client profile is $500 USD putting the average cost as a factor of the debt capital raised on Kiva to around 0.2% - 2%.
Foreign Exchange Hedging Cost
This cost varies from country to country - all Kiva's loans are in U.S. dollars. However, Kiva offers its MFI partners the ability to "stop-loss" their foreign currency risk. If an MFI chooses to enable currency exchange loss, it will not have to suffer the full impact of a revaluation of the $USD above a certain threshold. If the feature is chosen by the MFI, its foreign exchange loss is limited to a 20% revaluation of the $USD relative to the local currency. This means that the MFI partner would not have to repay more than an extra 20% in local currency relative to the amount disbursed, regardless of how severely the $USD revalues relative to the local currency. Any foreign exchange losses above the "stop-loss" threshold would be borne by Kiva lenders.
Total cost of Kiva Capital
0-1% (excluding F/X risk) - For most MFIs, Kiva represents the cheapest U.S. dollar debt capital source available.