Kiva Hits $100 Million in Loans

category: News

Published November 01, 2009 @ 08:47PM PT

Just in time for their big 4th birthday celebration this week in Berkeley, Kiva announced yesterday that they had officially hit $100,000,000 in loans. In a blog post on the site, President Premal Shah said that the group had hit the milestone with donations from 584,189 lenders.

This is a huge accomplishment. The level of engagement that Kiva has engendered and the excitement around the model are a major force for good in the social entrepreneurship space. Despite recent questions about marketing practices, Kiva has helped average people participate in a newer model of international development that, if no panecea, has much to recommend it.

What's more, Kiva has helped make real the power of the internet for social engagement. While many in the nonprofit industry have understood for a while the significance of this technological innovation, Kiva has demonstrated the democratizing power of the internet to help people - not to supplant old actors, who remain important - but to participate in change in extremely compelling ways.

What's more, Kiva has been a touchstone for the social entrepreneurship movement, in more ways than one. Microfinance itself helps people understand the idea of using business practices to help people lift themselves out of poverty. The way the site harnesses the distributed power of the internet and couples it with diligent on the ground partners and practices seems like a model for 21st century change. And finally, the stories of founders and high level staffers like Matt Flannery and Premal Shah, who incubated their talents in the for-profit startup world to then reapply them to social change has become a personal model for many.

People participate in change first out of a deep human instinct to contribute to the good of others and second because opportunities arise (or, perhaps more rarely, are sought out) that harness their instincts and talents in compelling ways.

The controversy around Kiva's marketing has struck a nerve with some because it cuts to the heart of what makes that experience compelling. For me, the reason that I'm convinced that Kiva will come through this just fine is that their experience is deeply engaging and different for people in more than one way, and they have a trust and commitment to public evolution that few can match. I'm hoping that this $100 mil is the first of many more.

(Photo: bfick)

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Comments (2)

Great news for the P2P microfinance model. We're working to implement the same model for China over at http://wokai.org. Nowhere near the scale of Kiva but slowly and surely making headway!

Posted by Euwyn Poon on 11/02/2009 @ 11:40AM PT
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This is great news. I wish there were a way to link this news into showing progress towards achieving Millennium Development Goals around the world. Another plus would be to see how these funds are helping to make communities better able to democratically achieve change and community betterment.

Posted by William Tarpai on 11/08/2009 @ 09:15AM PT
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Author

Nathaniel is the founding Director of the Center for Global Engagement at Northwestern University, which works annually with hundreds of students in dozens of countries around the world through curricular programs and student project incubation.