While all Field Partners working with Kiva have a strong social mission, some go further by specifically including poverty alleviation as part of their guiding principles.

To that end, Kiva seeks out Field Partners who target poorer populations despite the added costs and difficulties. Providing financial and non-financial services to poorer populations can often be challenging, and microfinance institutions must work hard to stay true to their mission. Serving the very poor can be riskier, more expensive and quite burdensome to implement in a sustainable manner. Some institutions pursue sustainability by serving individuals at different poverty levels in order to diversify their portfolio.

Field Partners can target poverty in different ways, including selecting geographic locations such as rural villages or urban slums where the population is poorer than the general population. Other options for reaching poorer populations may include utilizing poverty assessment tools with each new borrower, and/or offering products and services in a manner that attracts poorer borrowers (such as small loan sizes, uncollateralized loans, and solidarity groups). Because implementing these services and methodologies can be costly, Kiva’s lenders offer no interest, risk tolerant capital to our Field Partners to encourage their efforts.

Field Partners who reach deeper into poor populations to serve their unique needs are awarded the Anti-Poverty Focus badge by Kiva.