Blog posts tagged with loans

Apr 4, 2013 Kiva HQ KV
Apply to be a Kiva intern by April 22! By Emily Wakefield
Looking to begin a career in international development or non-profits? Want to be a part of one of Oprah’s favorite things? Join the Kiva team as an intern and gain access to a huge personal and professional network of technology, non-profit, and microfinance professionals!

Interns are essential to Kiva’s operations and achieving its mission of connecting people through lending to alleviate poverty. There are a wide range of positions in a variety of departments, where interns work closely with staff on important, high-impact projects in a very... Continue Reading >
Apr 4, 2013 Kiva HQ KV
New Field Partner: UpEnergy puts clean energy within reach of Uganda's rural poor By Amniya Shahbozova
When Kiva first decided to branch into loans for clean energy and green technologies, we discovered a wealth of prospective partners offering products designed for the poor. We've been thrilled to partner with a handful already, including EarthSpark International in Haiti, Solar Sister, IluMexico and more. Now we're growing that portfolio even more by launching with UpEnergy, a social enterprise working to make clean energy accessible in Uganda, Rwanda and Central America.

Founded in 2010, UpEnergy is focused on expanding access to clean and energy-efficient cookstoves in... Continue Reading >
Apr 4, 2013 Kiva HQ KV
From Kiva Walk to TEDx Talk By Polly Peterson


Jonathon Stalls learned about Kiva in a college class in 2007, and three years later, he took to the streets to spread the word about microfinance. Literally. Jonathon so deeply believes in the empowerment of Kiva loans that he walked across the United States over the course of over eight months to raise awareness and funds for the cause.
 
The results are as exciting as the journey: since his quest began, Jonathon and the Kiva Walk Lending Team that supports him have lent over a half million dollars to entrepreneurs around the globe!...
Continue Reading >
Apr 4, 2013 Kiva HQ KV
Tax Day is approaching! Don't forget to claim your Kiva donations! By Emily Wakefield
April -- the month of spring, flowers... and taxes.

Repayments make Kiva loans not tax-deductible in the United States. However, donations to Kiva’s operational expenses are! So remember if you made a donation to Kiva last year to declare it on your returns!

For every $1 you donate to Kiva, $9 more in loans is made possible. So not only will you be able to breathe a sigh of relief next April 15, but you’ll be helping people in the process!

If this April 15 is going to be particularly painful for you, do... Continue Reading >
Apr 4, 2013 Kiva HQ KV
Kiva hosts high school students for some design thinking By Emily Wakefield
Young people everywhere are taking action to celebrate the Month of Microfinance this April, but one group of students and teachers from Overlake School in Seattle actually made the trek to spend the week with us at Kiva Headquarters in San Francisco. These impressive young students took part in a ‘Design Thinking’ exercise to help develop some of Kiva’s future projects and initiatives. 



Design thinking is a strategy for creative brainstorming that encourages participants to ideate, innovate, and continue looping back until a real... Continue Reading >
Apr 4, 2013 Kiva HQ KV
Happy National Volunteer Month from Kiva! By Emily Wakefield
Did you know that April is National Volunteer Month?

This is a particularly special time for us at Kiva, as so much of our operations rely on the dedication and support of our 500+ volunteers around the world!



Close to 500 Kiva Fellows have helped us make sure our partnerships are running smoothly.

Kiva supporters volunteer their time in a number of ways to fuel our mission. Whether they be interns gaining work experience in our office, Kiva Fellows traveling the world, or multi-lingual editors translating loans... Continue Reading >
Apr 4, 2013 Kiva HQ KV
Loan on your phone! Kiva is rolling out its new mobile lending interface By Abe Wallin


Industry wide it’s no secret that mobile devices will represent a significant portion of computer usage in the near future. Even today nearly 9% of Kiva’s traffic comes from smartphones, and we’ve seen these numbers grow steadily year over year. This is great news for Kiva, as it shows people are interested in making loans on their mobile phones. But we also know that we could be doing a better job helping visitors find a borrower they want to support and complete the checkout process. Looking at our mobile data we’ve noticed that visitors with mobile... Continue Reading >
Apr 4, 2013 Kiva HQ KV
New Field Partners: Kiva and CAMEO team up to bring micro-loans to California small businesses By Amniya Shahbozova

Slowly but surely, Kiva has been expanding its presence in the United States. We've launched Kiva cities in Detroit...

Continue Reading >
Apr 4, 2013 Kiva HQ KV
How can YOU celebrate the Month of Microfinance this April? By Emily Wakefield
April recently became known as the Month of Microfinance (MoMF). But what does that actually mean?

For us at Kiva, Month of Microfinance is both a great partner organization and an activist movement that engages people in lending for change. Both were inspired by a growing, active, empowered community exploring the potential of microfinance to end poverty and transform lives around the world.

Kiva is excited to partner with MoMF again this year and encourage our incredible, impassioned community to participate in April 2013! There are a number of ways to get your... Continue Reading >
Apr 4, 2013 Kiva HQ KV
New Field Partner: Plasticos Foundation makes surgery affordable for families in Guatemala By Camille Ricketts
It's always been part of the plan for Kiva to offer health loans to make surgery and medical care more affordable for the world's poorest people. Today, we took a big step toward that goal by launching a new partnership with Plasticos Foundation, a nonprofit organization that provides reconstructive plastic surgery to low-income patients with health issues like cleft lips, burns, and more. 



While plastic surgery may not sound like a basic need, it's exactly that for thousands of people who find themselves discriminated against or ostracized from... Continue Reading >
Mar 3, 2013 Kiva HQ KV
Week in Review: How you can keep Nutrition Month rolling with Kiva By Emily Wakefield
Did you know there's enough food in the world today for everyone to have the nourishment they need for a healthy and productive life? Yet so many people -- in both the developed and developing world  -- remain hungry and even dangerously malnourished.

March was National Nutrition Month, so why are we posting about this now? Well, we want to focus on all the reasons why this issue needs attention all year long:

  • Undernutrition contributes to 2.6 million deaths of children under five each year -- one third of the global total....
Continue Reading >
Mar 3, 2013 Kiva HQ KV
How one Kiva borrower is changing the lives of dozens of weavers in the Philippines By Emily Wakefield
This is Renee. She's a Kiva borrower in the Philippines. She also runs her own business employing dozens of women weavers. When we talk about the ripple effect, and how helping one person can help many, this is exactly what we mean.



A particularly remarkable woman, Renee is a US-born Filipino designer who works with women from 50 villages in Eastern Samar (one of the poorest provinces in the Philippines) to manufacture and export native bags made from seagrass -- providing a large community of weavers with stable incomes.

She... Continue Reading >
Mar 3, 2013 Kiva HQ KV
Slow Money: Small investments in sustainable change By Camille Ricketts
Here at Kiva, we’re all about deliberate and sustainable change. In order to make a true difference in lives and communities all over the world, we need to make sure people have the tools to lift themselves out of poverty. And every day, thousands of Kiva lenders help make this possible by lending small amounts of money to support businesses, education, and more.

This is one facet of a new U.S. movement coined “Slow Money.” As the Dow Jones Industrial Average hits an all time high, and more and more people struggle to find work and equitable pay, it’s... Continue Reading >
Mar 3, 2013 Kiva HQ KV
Kiva Fellows Program receives record number of applications for spring-summer term By Blake
With our 20th class of fellows currently in the field, the Kiva Fellows Program is well into reviewing applications for the next wave (dubbed KF21).

This next class happens to fall during the summer, giving graduate students the opportunity to gain invaluable field experience during their summer breaks. While the typical Kiva Fellow spends 16 weeks in the field, we also offer a small number of shorter-term fellowships during our summer class to accommodate these students. No doubt this has contributed to the all-time high in applications received -- up 36% from last class, and up... Continue Reading >
Mar 3, 2013 Kiva HQ KV
Top loan updates: New loans for growing businesses in Iraq, El Salvador and Uganda By Emily Wakefield
Every week we receive dozens of loan updates from our partners about what Kiva borrowers are doing with their loans, how they are succeeding, and when they repay. We're excited to announce that we will be posting a weekly roundup of some of the most inspiring loan updates, starting today.



Denis lives in El Salvador with his wife and 7-year-old daughter. He's worked as a farmer for over 15 years, after learning the trade from his father.

He took out his first Kiva loan in September 2011 and used that $450 to buy herbicides and fertilizer... Continue Reading >
Mar 3, 2013 Kiva HQ KV
University of Pennsylvania students host country's largest undergraduate microfinance conference By Emily Wakefield
There's nothing we at Kiva love more than kids and students getting involved with microfinance and making a difference early in their lives.

On a mission to help people help themselves, students at the University of Pennsylvania established their own organization dedicated to microfinance 7 years ago. Today, they are the largest undergraduate microfinance organization in the United States and the host of the first and largest undergraduate microfinance conference, which is coming up on March 30.



Saloni is a sophomore at the University of... Continue Reading >
Mar 3, 2013 Kiva HQ KV
Happy World Water Day! By Emily Wakefield
Water is at the root of everything. Our environment, socio-economic development, poverty reduction, and the fulfillment of the most basic human needs all depend on it.

Yet in 2013, about one-ninth of our world’s population -- 780 million people -- lack access to clean water. And about 3.4 million of these people die annually as a result.



So ten years ago today, the United Nations General Assembly declared March 22 as World Water Day -- a day for the whole world to focus attention on the importance of clean, accessible water.

Each year... Continue Reading >
Mar 3, 2013 Kiva HQ KV
What's new on Kiva 3/22: Social sharing, wish lists, loan alerts and more By Martin Butt
The last update to the Kiva website is what we call an Innovation Iteration -- the engineers got to vote on the projects they wanted to work on. The results include some fun and interesting improvements to the site.

Social Share Buttons
We've made sharing great loans with your networks even easier by adding social share buttons to loan profile pages. Now you can share borrower stories easily on Facebook, Twitter, and Google+.



Loan Wish List
Have you seen a great loan you want to remember? You... Continue Reading >
Mar 3, 2013 Burundi BI
Burundi disaster recovery: Lending to people who have lost everything By Camille Ricketts
Early in the morning on Sunday, January 27, the main market in Bujumbura, the capital of Burundi, caught fire -- bringing the city and the country's economy to a standstill. The blaze grew into a massive inferno, consuming the entire city.

By the time the fire subsided in the evening, the vast covered market and economic heart of Burundi was reduced to rubble. An estimated 10 people died attempting to retrieve merchandise from the stalls, and thousands of vendors and merchants lost everything they owned: property, goods, and livelihoods that had taken years to build in a... Continue Reading >
Mar 3, 2013 Kiva HQ KV
Passport Series: Reaching refugees and other vulnerable communities in Lebanon By Emily Wakefield
To conclude our Passport Series on Lebanon, we want to share a few inspiring borrower stories to remind you just how important and impactful your $25 can be.

Meet Hayat.

A 56 year-old wife and mother, Hayat lives in a refugee camp just outside of Beirut. But, as a Syrian refugee, she's not actually a Lebanese citizen.



Naturalization in Lebanon is almost impossible without marrying a Lebanese man -- and Hayat’s husband is also a non-citizen. This means that their children also live without registered IDs or... Continue Reading >
Mar 3, 2013 Kiva HQ KV
Watch President Bill Clinton launch Kiva City Little Rock! By Camille Ricketts
Here at Kiva, we were honored and thrilled last week to have President Bill Clinton launch our newest Kiva City program in Little Rock, Arkansas!

Hundreds gathered at William J. Clinton Presidential Center and Park to celebrate the launch of Kiva City Little Rock -- including many of the small business owners raising loans on Kiva! 

Partnering with Visa and microfinance organization Accion Texas, Kiva is now offering $25 loans in the Little Rock Area -- giving lenders everywhere the chance to empower a small business and help create employment in a state where... Continue Reading >
Mar 3, 2013 Kiva HQ KV
Featured Volunteer: 1,000 loans and counting for Spanish translator Gail LeGrand By Katie Miura


“I really enjoy my time with Kiva. I am honored and thrilled to be a volunteer because not everyone has this chance to help borrowers the way we do.”

City: Gurnee, Illinois

Language: Spanish

Team: Mil Puentes

Time with Kiva: One and a half years as a translator, five years as a lender!

Outstanding contributions to Kiva:
From the moment Gail started translating, her enthusiasm and excitement to volunteer... Continue Reading >
Mar 3, 2013 Kiva HQ KV
1 MILLION BORROWERS! By Camille Ricketts
That's right. Kiva has officially reached 1 MILLION borrowers with loans around the world!

WAHOO! HOORAY! WAY TO GO! BOOM. [INSERT CELEBRATORY EXCLAMATION HERE!]

Here's the thing: it's really YOU that's reached 1 million borrowers -- our lenders are truly the ones who made this inspiring, magical, stupendous achievement happen! You found the loans, you funded them, you touched and changed lives in fundamental ways. Your collective impact has set off a massive ripple effect of change across the world. And we can't... Continue Reading >
Mar 3, 2013 Kiva HQ KV
Introducing Kiva City Little Rock! By Emily Wakefield
We are thrilled to announce that Little Rock has been added to our list of Kiva Cities this morning! Partnering with Visa Inc. and Accion Texas, Kiva is now giving lenders the opportunity to support small businesses and entrepreneurs in Little Rock, Arkansas with as little as $25.

The beauty of Kiva City Little Rock is that it is driven by local people with local solutions for starting or expanding small businesses and stimulating job growth.

“This initiative gives everyone a chance to help support local jobs and businesses in Little Rock,” said President... Continue Reading >
Mar 3, 2013 Kiva HQ KV
Passport Series: Kiva partners make great strides in Lebanon By Emily Wakefield
Decades of intermittent unrest and reconstruction have left Lebanon's economy deep in debt and relatively unstable. We're proud that Kiva's presence in the country has helped -- even in just small ways -- to rebuild the economy via small business growth. 

To date, Kiva lenders have made nearly 7,500 loans totaling over $9.5 million in Lebanon via two local microfinance partners.

The Al Majmoua Lebanese Association for Development is the leading microfinance institution in Lebanon in terms of the number of clients it serves. One reason that it was... Continue Reading >

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