Kiva Blog

Blog posts tagged with Kiva News

May 5, 2009
KF8 Training Complete & Kiva Fellows Application Fixed By Anonymous
The next class of Kiva Fellows has finished training at Kiva headquarters and will soon be heading into the field. Congratulations to the 27 trainees that officially became Kiva Fellows last week. They enthusiastically handled five full days of powerpoint presentations, demos, and discussions.

Some highlights from training included the Kiva Social, a cable car ride through San Francisco, the Go-Game fundraiser, and watching funny welcome videos from two KF7's.

The KF8 fellows will be placed in 19 countries throughout the world. This class will be strengthening the... Continue Reading >>
May 5, 2009
A few changes to the site By Roma Jhaveri
In the website release that will go out shortly, there are a few changes worth calling out:

  • We were able to track down and fix the issue some people were having with their transaction history. What's more, we were able to make it much snappier
  • The entrepreneur profile page has changed. You will notice:
    • A country section on the right side of the page, showing where the loan is going as well as some basic information about the country that the entrepreneur or group lives in
    • We've been able to make the "Advanced View" of the repayment schedule even more...
    Continue Reading >>
    May 5, 2009
    Change to Billing Cycle By Anonymous
    When we made the change to our new Partner Administration system in November, we also created a longer billing cycle of 45 days. After working with this system for a few months we realized the longer billing cycle was overly complicated for Kiva’s Field Partners, leading to a lot of confusion, missed payments, etc. So we’re shortening the billing cycle to 30 days, which means that partners will now make payments to Kiva on the last day of the month, rather than the 15th of the following month. Shortening the billing cycle helps our Field Partners because making payments for the previous month... Continue Reading >>
    May 5, 2009
    Matt Flannery speaking at Silicon Valley Microfinance Network (SVMN) Speaker Event tonight By Fiona Ramsey
    Matt Flannery will join Mads Kjaer, Co-Founder and CEO of MYC4, at Silicon Valley Microfinance Network's Speaker Event this evening in San Francisco. Matt and Mads will discuss the hurdles their online peer-to-peer lending platforms have faced as the two young companies have developed over the last few years. The trail-blazing organizations have forced regulators, investors, philanthropists, borrowers, and others to ask new questions as we all form and find the answers together.

    Come hear from Matt Flannery and Mads Kjaer, ask them questions, and meet others interested in... Continue Reading >>
    May 5, 2009
    Blog for Cash for Kiva By Chelsa Bocci

    Didn't think you could change the world just by blogging?  Well, here's your chance, you can help Kiva raise money by simply writing a post about us on your site.

    Zemanta, a tool that helps bloggers...

    Continue Reading >>
    May 5, 2009
    "Play" for Kiva and pass it on! By Chelsa Bocci

    LimeLife.com, a leading women’s digital media company, has recently launched the “Apps for Good” charitable donation program. LimeLife will donate 10% of the profits it generates from downloads of its iPhone game, Hollywood Hangman, between today and Sunday, June 21st to Kiva!

    Your download of the iPhone game will help pave the way for women like Amavi Akoete, a Togoan 35-year-old mother of six, to grow her jewelry business or Yen Pham Thi, a 35-year-old mother of two infants, to expand her cattle business. How can you participate in LimeLife’s Apps for Good charitable campaign...

    Continue Reading >>
    May 5, 2009
    Kiva Maintenance this Thursday By Asher Feldman
    We're upgrading the Kiva database this Thursday to better scale the site. To that end, we've scheduled a maintenance window from 7-9pm Pacific. If you see our maintenance page during that time, don't worry, we'll be back soon! Continue Reading >>
    May 5, 2009
    Kiva is a TiE50 Winner! By Chelsa Bocci
    Kiva has been selected as one of the hottest startups of 2009 and will be honored as a TiE50 winner! The competition was fierce with nearly 1,200 highly qualified companies nominated and only ten from each of the five focus segments were selected as winners. Thanks to your votes, Kiva was judged to be an exceptional emerging startup in the Consumer Web focus segment. Thank YOU for helping us...
    Continue Reading >>
    May 5, 2009
    Major Changes to the Kiva Fellows Program By JD Bergeron
    As you may have noticed, Kiva is growing! In order to keep up with the rapid change of pace, the Kiva Fellows Program has made some adjustments. 

    Effective Wednesday, the Kiva Fellows Program has a new online application, which you can see here: http://www.kiva.org/about/fellowsapply/. The new format does a better job of emphasizing the traits, skills and experiences which make for successful fellowships. These include a clear motivation statement, extensive independent travel experience, language proficiency appropriate to a country in which Kiva...
    Continue Reading >>
    May 5, 2009
    TiEcon 2009: Vote for Kiva By Chelsa Bocci
    Kiva is one of 150 finalists for the TiE50 awards selected from 1,200 nominees!  Together, let's put Kiva on the map as one of the hottest 50 emerging companies today.  

    So, vote now to help ensure Kiva makes the Top 50- there will be 10 winners in each of the five segments.  Voting closes this Thursday on May 7th, so hurry! 
    Continue Reading >>
    May 5, 2009
    April was the THIRD record breaking month on Kiva in a row! By Fiona Ramsey
    It's official - April was the third record breaking month on Kiva in a row!

    From 1 - 30 April, Kiva Lenders loaned $4,487,875 to entrepreneurs around the world.

    That's $149,596 every day.
    Or $103.89 EVERY MINUTE.
    That's the most loaned on Kiva in one month ever.

    Now that would be exciting enough in itself, but consider that this is the third month in a row that we've had the "biggest month... Continue Reading >>
    Apr 4, 2009
    Twitters about Kiva? (Update) By Fiona Ramsey
    Hey Kiva Supporters - we made a mistake when we said that Brad Pitt Twittered about Kiva a few days ago. We were notified today that the Twitter account named “TheRealBradPitt” is not in fact owned by Brad Pitt, the actor. The fake Brad Pitt profile has now been taken down by Twitter. I guess a lot of people were fooled (the profile had tens of thousands of followers), but I feel pretty embarrassed because I thought I had an eye for this kind of thing.

    Anyways, what this means is that Brad Pitt, the actor, did not Twitter about Kiva. But he, through a direct representative, has... Continue Reading >>
    Apr 4, 2009
    Community Conference Call - 4/15 @ 2 pm PDT By Gerard Niemira
    Our next Kiva Community Conference Call is scheduled for Wednesday, April 15th (Tax Day!) at 2pm PDT.
    This month we'll be taking questions from the community as well as discussing a new feature we hope to implement over the summer (more on that to come).
    The call in info is:

    Dial in US: 866-740-1260
    Dial in (Outside US): +1 303-248-0285
    Access Code: 6415483

    We hope to hear you on the line!
    Continue Reading >>
    Mar 3, 2009
    New on Kiva: Improved Entrepreneur Repayment Schedules By Roma Jhaveri
    We're excited to announce the roll-out of a new display for entrepreneur repayment schedules. The new display lives towards the bottom of entrepreneur profile pages and has a few improvements over our old display:


  • It shows Expected vs. Actual Repayments to the lenders (including when to expect these payments by)

  • There's now a clear indication of whether a loan is Delinquent. You can hit "Show Advanced" to see whether the loan is delinquent because the entrepreneur hasn't paid yet or because the Field Partner hasn't paid yet. In other words, this is a high...
    • Continue Reading >>
    Mar 3, 2009
    Kiva in Mongolian press By Fiona Ramsey
    Kiva was recently featured in the UB Post, a Mongolian national independent English weekly newspaper.

    It's an interesting article about Kiva's partnership with Xac Bank, and it's also cool to see Kiva in Mongolian press!

    Check out the article here. Continue Reading >>
    Mar 3, 2009
    Release Notes for 3/18/09 By Gerard Niemira
    Yesterday we released a new version of Kiva. Here's what we updated:

    • Video Journals - It's now possible to get a video update of an entrepreneur you've supported.
    • Fixed the "Reloan" button on "My Portfolio"
    • Updates to our API
    • Lots and lots of fun back-end fixes!
    Look for another update in two weeks.
    Continue Reading >>
    Mar 3, 2009
    Kiva IT Internship Program By Rich Bodo
    I have been informed that short posts are best. Click here for the program.

    For my part, I am very excited about the program. If you are not interested in the internship, but feel you can help Kiva IT in some way, please contact rich -a-t- kiva -d-o-t- org. Thanks. Continue Reading >>
    Mar 3, 2009
    Congratulations CEVI!! By Anonymous
    Hey Kiva Lenders –

    Just wanted to let everyone know that we have graduated the first Filipino MFI partner – Community Economic Ventures Inc. (CEVI) – from “Pilot” to “Active” status. In just 4 short months, they have completed a rigorous Pilot process and now represents our first “Active” partner in Philippines. Kudos goes to CEVI's staff, our Partner Development Specialist Rico... Continue Reading >>
    Mar 3, 2009
    Release Notes for 3/3/09 By Gerard Niemira
    Way back on Tuesday we pushed a new version of Kiva. Here's what we did:

    -Lots of behind the scenes tweaks (think accounting systems, tweaks to our volunteer translation software, some API stuff, etc)
    -We increased the loan limits for entrepreneurs in some countries (mostly Eastern Europe/Central Asia and the Middle East) from $1200 to $3000 reflecting the changing realities of microfinance in those regions.
    -We're also laying the groundwork to add more video content to Kiva! Continue Reading >>
    Mar 3, 2009
    Premal Shah announced as one of World Economic Forum's Young Global Leaders By Fiona Ramsey


    The World Economic Forum has published its 2009 list of Young Global Leaders, which includes Premal Shah, Kiva's President.

    Congratulations Premal! Continue Reading >>
    Mar 3, 2009
    KivaAlerts is here! By Fiona Ramsey
    Are you someone who keeps coming back to the site waiting for a loan from Sierra Leone, or a loan for a carpentry business?

    Now you can use KivaAlerts to let you know when the loan of your preference is available for funding.



    KivaAlerts was built by BetterLabs using the Kiva API.

    Betterlabs posted about KivaAlerts:

    We believe KivaAlerts.com will remind every one interested in supporting the Kiva causes more proactively and we also hope that users will forward interesting loan alerts to friends and family and help grow the lenders... Continue Reading >>
    Feb 2, 2009
    Video on Kiva borrower profiles! By Roma Jhaveri
    Kiva's engineering team has been working on an experiment for the last few weeks to see how we can bring borrowers and lenders closer. In the past, we've seen that photographs have been one of the biggest ways for our lenders to feel connected to our borrowers.

    We decided to take that a step farther by experimenting with a new medium: video! Our first video-profile loan is up on the site and hopefully you'll see a few more trickle up to the site as we experiment with this functionality. We'll also be pushing to have more video journals up on the site over the next month or so.... Continue Reading >>
    Feb 2, 2009
    Viva Kiva! By Fiona Ramsey
    Check out VivaKiva, a website that explains Kiva in Italian (English translation here).

    They've even made their own animation to explain the Kiva concept:



    Who knows what we'll see next! Continue Reading >>
    Feb 2, 2009
    Release Notes - 2/19/09 By Gerard Niemira
    We pushed a new version of the website last night. Here's a summary of some of the changes we made:
    • Fixed loans that were incorrectly marked "Paid Back" and restored them to "Active" status.
    • If you've made a loan to a group, your transaction history will show the name of the group, instead of the group leader's name.
    • Moved the transaction history out of the "Account" section under "My Portfolio" and added it to the left nav under "My Portfolio".
    • Added a running balance to the transaction history (this is also added to the Excel spreadsheet generated by the...
    Continue Reading >>
    Feb 2, 2009
    Kiva is the featured video for YouTube Nonprofits today By Roma Jhaveri
    A video about Kiva is the featured video on the Nonprofits & Activism site for YouTube today. You can view the video at the top of the page today by clicking here. This video was created for us by Intel as part of their SmallThingsChallenge program.

    Also, check out the Kiva channel on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/user/kivamicrofunds to see more videos posted by Kiva. Continue Reading >>

    Pages