Thursday, April 12, 2012

K is for..........

K is for...........Kiva.


A few years ago, we set up an account with Kiva, a non-profit organization that allows people to loan money to entrepreneurs in developing countries. Kiva works with regional microfinance institutions to distribute member donations. As of March 31, 2012, Kiva has loaned over $300,000,000 to small business owners all over the world, with 80.46% of all loans going to women. If you are interested in learning more, just click on the graphic to go to Kiva's website.

We have made 16 loans to small business owners all over the world. 11 have been paid back in full, 4 are ongoing, and one loan was refunded. We get an email every time a payment is made on an outstanding loan, and when there is enough in our account, we look for other people to loan the money.

We started with an initial donation of $150, all of which we loaned to Comfort Anima in Ghana to help her buy supplies for her store. As Comfort repaid the loan, we in turn, loaned that money to other entrepreneurs. I may be oversimplifying, but the way I look at it, our original $150 has become the $625 we have so far loaned through Kiva. As our loans are repaid, that number will continue to grow. We have enjoyed our involvement with Kiva, and as a family, we look forward to helping more people.

16 comments:

  1. What a brilliant idea. I hadn't heard of this, but will look at it right now.

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    1. The idea of microfinance has been around for a while, but it's really taking off with Kiva.

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    1. It's something we talk about as a family, and that makes it very rewarding.

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  3. Tim, that is AWESOME. Wow. New respect for you! I have heard of Kiva before and think it is an absolutely fabulous organization. Good on you for spreading, not only the monetary love, but also the word.

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  4. Wow, I've never heard of this before. What a great idea. So cool that you're involved. Kind of the same reason I like Heifer International so much. It's about entrepreneurship and self sufficiency.

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    1. My colleague raises $ with her students for Heifer International-another cool organization.

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  5. wow, what a cool organization...do you know any in the USA's who will make loans to individuals desiring to start a business? My husband wants to open a store and needs someone willing to provide the financial aspect and he'll run the store, so just curious. I stopped by from A to Z..

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    1. I think Kiva tried out some US loans a while back, but as of right now, I don't think they loan in the US. I don't know of any other organizations doing similar work in the US, but I would think "crowd funding" will happen soon in the US for small businesses.

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  6. That's kind of cool, Tim. I'd never heard of this before.

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  7. REALLY!! I never hears of anything like this before. I like the premise of the idea. What a great post for the A to Z Challenge.

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  8. What a cool idea! I have heard of Kiva, but never knew how it worked.

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  9. From what I've heard, Kiva is one great organization!


    The Golden Eagle
    The Eagle's Aerial Perspective

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  10. Wow! This sounds amazing. Thank you for sharing:)

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  11. Its good to know about that sound. Its really sounds good. I hope, I will get more details related. You can add T for Title Loans. I hope, that helps the people to understand that queries in future and makes our life easy.






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