Kiva (philanthropic organization)
Kiva is a non-profit organization that allows Internet users to lend money to microcredit institutions in developing countries. These institutions lend the money received to the inhabitants of the country in which they operate 1 . It is based in San Francisco and is funded by donations from its users and partnerships with businesses and other institutions 2 .
Operation
Kiva allows institutions microcredit in developing countries, called “partners on the ground” ( Field Partners ), posting the profile of entrepreneurson its website. Lenders (ie Internet users) can search for entrepreneurs (geographical area, activity) and choose the entrepreneur to whom they wish to lend their money. Kiva gathers the money from the individual lenders and transfers it to the corresponding partner so that he pays the money to the entrepreneur. As the entrepreneurs repay their loans, the partner transfers the funds to Kiva, who returns the money to the internet users who lent to this entrepreneur. Internet users can then recover their money or lend it to a new entrepreneur.
The funds of the lenders are transferred to Kiva via PayPal which does not charge in this case 3 . Partners charge entrepreneurs a rate of interest; Kiva claims to monitor the interest rates of its partners and does not wish to collaborate with institutions applying unfair rates 4 . Internet users do not receive interest because Kiva is not registered with the US government as a broker ( broker ) 5 . Kiva says its borrowers have a default rate of 3.1% 6 .
Organization and team
Kiva was founded in October 2005 by Matt and Jessica Flannery 7 . The couple’s interest in microfinance is due to a lecture given at the Stanford Business School in 2003 by Muhammad Yunus , founder of Grameen Bank . Jessica Flannery was working at the Business School and invited Matt to attend the event.
Promotion
Bill Clinton , Oprah Winfrey and Greta Van Susteren encouraged Kiva. Articles have appeared in The New York Times , The Los Angeles Times, and The World .
Statistics
On 1 st June 2015, there were 1,319,213 users who have lent a total of 727 768 425 $ . 673,080 loan applications were funded through 296 local partners in 86 countries.
The average loan amount is $ 415.36 8 ; each loan is divided among several users up to $ 25 each in general. The loan repayment rate is 98.69%.
Kiva also has 450 volunteers around the world.
According to Alexa , Kiva is one of the 15,500 most visited sites on the web 9 .
Annexes
Related Articles
- microcredit
Notes and references
- ( In ) This article is partially or entirely from the Wikipedia article in English entitled ” Kiva (organization) ” ( see the list of authors ) .
- ↑ “What We Do” on Kiva.org [ archive ]
- ↑ “Supporters” on Kiva.org [ archive ]
- ↑ Kiva FAQ: When I pay through PayPal, is PayPal taking a fee? [ archive ] : “Kiva.org is the first organization.
- ↑ Kiva FAQ: Do Kiva.org’s Field Partners charging interest to the entrepreneurs? [ archive ] : “Our Field Partners are free to charge interest, but Kiva.org will not partner with any organization that charges exorbitant interest rates.”
- ↑ Kiva FAQ: Do I get interest on my loan? [ archive ] : “Providing an interest in our government is easier.”
- ↑ [1] [ archive ] : “Of the $ 17,340,260 of loans with completed loan terms, the default rate is 3.1%”
- ↑ “Kiva Facts At A Glance” on kiva.org [ archive ]
- ↑ “Official Kiva.org Statistics [ archive ]
- ↑ Alexa.com – Kiva.org traffic details [ archive ]