Have you heard about Kiva.org yet? I stumbled upon them a few years ago through an article on Yahoo!. I don’t remember exactly how I came across it. I do remember being very impressed by the article and some of the people that were, at the time, supporting it. I had heard about micro-loans for a while and so when I saw that that is what they do I got enthused and decided to look into them further.
Kiva funds micro loans around the world. They have an unbelievable repayment rate at better than 95%. They have loaned an amazing amount of money and have a large number of people world wide helping to fund these loans, in $25 increments. Oh, and you can re-loan the money once it’s paid back. These are a few of the things that had me excited about it.
I did have a read of how it works and how they go about selecting their field partners and all of that. That was a few years ago. They have grown incredibly since then. They now have group loans and lending teams. You can read some quick facts on them here: http://www.kiva.org/about/facts .
I love their tag line “Loans that change lives”. I also really like one of their slogans for t-shirts and such, it says, “Wanna help buy a goat”. I keep meaning to get me a shirt or bag with that on it. I just think it’s cool. They have a store where you can purchase logoed merchandise. The funds from the store go towards helping run Kiva. The money you loan goes to a borrower.
So the question you probably want an answer to is if I have loaned? YES. I will proudly stand up and say “I’m a Loaner”. I have helped to fund several loans. I have 2 going now and 6 that have already been paid back in full. Not only that, for Christmas one year I chose to give my family gift certificates so they could loan. I did it as a one per household thing. I gave to my parents, my sister’s family, and my uncle. They have all redeemed their certificates. I know my parents have even reloaned theirs. It’s the gift that keeps giving.
I can’t do justice to what Kiva do. I can really only tell you that I think it’s a cool thing and instead of just saying it’s a cool thing, I’ve gotten involved a little. I’ve included their ad on my website as one more way to help out. Please check out their site. I really think their program is a good model and that they are helping to do a lot of good. You can get there either through the advert or just go directly to: http://www.kiva.org click around on the site read up on what they do, and how they work, read up on the lenders and the borrowers. And if you’ve got $25 to spare for your charitable contributions this year, I hope you will consider spending it with Kiva.
Originally published at: suguayproductions.com/joomla which has been discontinued.
