Kiva

1. What is Kiva?

Positioning: Kiva is an international non-profit crowdfunding platform focused on expanding financial access, allowing individuals to lend as little as $25 to support underserved entrepreneurs and communities worldwide.

Functional Panorama: Kiva covers modules for browsing and lending to specific entrepreneurs or groups, tracking loan repayments, joining or forming lending teams, purchasing gift cards, and viewing comprehensive impact reports. It also facilitates partnerships with local microfinance institutions and offers an educational section on global development and financial inclusion.

2. Kiva’s Use Cases

• For Individual Lenders: To directly support entrepreneurs, students, or farmers in developing regions, making a tangible social impact and receiving repayments over time which can be re-lent.
• For Aspiring Entrepreneurs/Small Business Owners: To access capital for business expansion, education, green initiatives, or basic needs in communities where traditional financial services are limited.
• For Field Partners: To connect their vetted local borrowers with a global pool of lenders, enabling them to disburse more loans and expand their reach.
• For Socially Conscious Investors: To diversify their philanthropic efforts beyond traditional donations by engaging in a re-lendable model that provides ongoing impact.
• For Educators/Students: To learn about global development, microfinance, and financial inclusion through Kiva’s detailed borrower stories and impact data.

3. Kiva’s Key Features

• Direct Lender-to-Borrower Connection: Enables lenders to browse specific borrower profiles, read their stories, and choose who to support.
• High Repayment Rate: Maintains a 96.2% repayment rate across its platform, demonstrating effective risk management by Field Partners.
• Loan Tracking & Re-lending: Provides a dashboard for lenders to track the progress of their loans and easily re-lend repaid funds to new borrowers, multiplying their impact.
• Impact Reporting Dashboard: Offers detailed data on the social and economic impact of loans, including sectors supported, regions reached, and lives impacted.
• Global Network of Field Partners: Facilitates loans through a rigorously vetted network of over 300 local microfinance institutions and social enterprises in 70+ countries, ensuring local support and accountability.
• Recent Focus on Climate Action Loans: Expanded its lending categories to include more loans specifically targeting climate change resilience and environmental sustainability, reflecting an updated strategic priority in Q4 2023.
• Enhanced Mobile App Experience: Ongoing improvements to the mobile application for both iOS and Android, focusing on intuitive loan browsing and repayment tracking.

4. How to Use Kiva?

1. Register and Fund Your Account: Create a Kiva account on their website or mobile app and deposit funds using a credit card, PayPal, or bank transfer.
2. Browse and Select a Loan: Explore available loans using filters for region, sector, social impact themes, or specific borrower characteristics.
3. Make a Loan: Add the chosen loan(s) to your cart and complete the lending process. You can lend as little as $25 per borrower.
4. Track Your Impact: Monitor the repayment progress of your loans through your lender dashboard. Kiva automatically deposits repayments back into your account as they are received.
5. Pro Tip for Compounding Impact: Instead of withdrawing repaid funds, re-lend them to new borrowers. This allows your initial capital to be recycled and continuously support new entrepreneurs, maximizing your philanthropic impact over time.
6. Pro Tip for Deeper Engagement: Join or create a “Lending Team” to pool funds with friends, family, or colleagues. Teams often compete to lend the most, fostering community and collective impact.

5. Kiva’s Pricing & Access

• Free for Lenders: Individuals can lend on Kiva without any fees charged by Kiva. Lenders have the option to add a donation to Kiva to support its operational costs, but this is voluntary.
• 0% Interest from Kiva to Borrowers: Kiva itself does not charge interest to borrowers. Funds are channeled through Field Partners, who may charge their own interest rates to cover their operational costs in the field, but Kiva focuses on ensuring these rates are fair and transparent.
• Global Access: Kiva facilitates loans in over 70 countries through its network of Field Partners, providing financial access to underserved populations worldwide.
• Repayment Dynamics: Repayments are returned to the lender’s Kiva account, typically within 6-12 months for most loans, allowing funds to be re-lent or withdrawn.
• Web Dynamics: Donation Matching: Kiva frequently offers limited-time donation matching campaigns, where corporate partners or large donors match new contributions to Kiva’s operating fund, effectively doubling the impact of optional donations.

6. Kiva’s Comprehensive Advantages

• Unparalleled Transparency: Kiva stands out by allowing lenders to select specific borrowers and track the progress of their individual loans, a level of transparency often unmatched by traditional microfinance funds or general charity donations.
• High Financial Efficiency & Impact: Rated 4-stars with a 97% overall score by Charity Navigator, demonstrating exceptional financial health, accountability, and transparency.
• Sustainable Lending Model: Unlike pure donations, Kiva’s re-lending model allows initial capital to be recycled multiple times, generating continuous impact from the same funds.
• Extensive Global Reach: Operates through hundreds of Field Partners across 70+ countries, enabling support for a diverse range of entrepreneurs and communities that might be inaccessible through local channels alone.
• Strong Borrower Repayment Culture: The consistent 96.2% repayment rate highlights the effectiveness of Kiva’s Field Partners in vetting borrowers and supporting their businesses, validating the model’s viability.