Posts Tagged ‘kiva.org’
Posted on November 9, 2009 - by boris
Craigslist founder Craig Newmark, to support ACCION USA microlending activities…
ACCION USA, a pioneer and recognized leader in U.S. microfinance, has been awarded a gift by Craigslist founder Craig Newmark, to support its person-to-person microlending activities on the Website Kiva.org.
Best known for founding the online community Craigslist, Mr. Newmark is a strong supporter of microfinance internationally. “ACCION USA’s work in providing microfinance to small business owners here in the United States is commendable,” said Mr. Newmark.
“As a business owner myself, I understand that access to loans to grow a business is critical. I am proud to support ACCION USA’s Kiva lending program.”
Source: http://www.prweb.com/releases/2009/11/prweb3166064.htm
Posted on November 4, 2009 - by boris
Kiva.org reaches $100 million in microloans around the globe…
October marks two considerable milestones for Kiva.org — the world’s first micro-lending website for the working poor. This month, Kiva.org celebrates its fourth anniversary, in addition to reaching over $100 million in loans.
Since launching in October 2005, Kiva.org has provided loans to more than 239,000 entrepreneurs in over 50 countries.
Upwards of 573,000 lenders have given through Kiva.org, lending over $100 million at the end of October 2009 — an increase of nearly $60 million since the same time last year.
Source: http://www.sys-con.com/node/1168910
Posted on June 25, 2009 - by Gavin
Microfinance: How Anyone Can Support Small Businesses, Our American Roots…
Napsnet.com
(NAPSI)-Small businesses are the epitome of the American
way–improving one’s life and supporting a family by offering
useful services and products to communities by hard-working,
industrious people. According to the Association for Enterprise
Opportunity (AEO), today, small businesses comprise a whopping 87
percent of all businesses in the U.S., and chances are that you
know or shop at one near you. The recent emergence of Web-based
microfinance in the U.S. lets anyone directly fund the small
businesses that supply local communities with unique character
and opportunities.
Microfinance In The U.S.: How You Can Take Part
There are many microfinance organizations in the U.S. that make
microloans, and getting involved is easy.
Posted on June 24, 2009 - by Gavin
Microlender Kiva matches individuals with U.S. entrepreneurs who seek funding…
News Room Jersey
SAN FRANCISCO — Microfinance is a big focus in the international
development world. It’s the process of getting small loans and
financial services to the poor and underserved. And it’s not just
global institutions like the Grameen Bank that make those loans.
There are a number of Web sites that help individual Internet
users fund entrepreneurs from Kenya to Cambodia.
Now, one of the biggest, Kiva.org, is allowing users to make
microloans to small business owners, like Vika Sinipata, in the
United States.
An idea for a business is not enough
In January, the human resources professional fulfilled a longtime
dream. She opened her own business, assisting the elderly. She
got the idea for it after taking care of her own relatives. What
she couldn’t get was a line of credit.
Posted on June 10, 2009 - by Gavin
Microfinance site expands to U.S. businesses…
SF Gate
When Shane Alan and Erik Mantsch couldn’t get a bank loan for their San Francisco board game store, they remembered the woman in Cambodia. In 2007, Alan used the microfinance Web site Kiva.org to loan her $25 so her husband could buy a trailer for his motorcycle taxi service.Never did they imagine Kiva could help them start a business, too.
Today, Alan and Mantsch are among the first 36 U.S. entrepreneurs who will request community microloans on Kiva. Prompted by the economic downturn, the San Francisco nonprofit group known for helping poor entrepreneurs overseas will start doing the same for people at home.
Just like the loans that go for seeds or cows in developing countries, visitors to the Kiva site can scroll through the U.S. loan requests and choose those they want to fund with bite-size loans as small as $25. In a pilot program, 18 borrowers were chosen from the Bay Area and 18 from New York – many who were turned down by banks that no longer loan as freely as they once did.
Posted on June 2, 2009 - by Gavin
Pushing pedals to give credit to world’s poor…
York Region.com
BY L.H. TIFFANY HSIEH
Jenika Wong doesn’t classify herself as an avid cyclist. Once she tried to bike on Hwy. 7 and was flagged down by the police and told never to do that again.
“I was pretty turned off from cycling in Markham after that, because of safety,” said the 22-year-old Unionville resident, who is currently studying international development and philosophy at the University of Toronto Scarborough campus.
But on Saturday, Ms Wong was leading the second annual Break the Cycle pledge ride in Toronto to raise funds for a microcredit initiative spearheaded by Global Agents for Change (Global AFC), a youth-led charitable organization that supports sustainable solutions to global poverty.
And in July and August, the Global AFC ride leader will cycle 4,000 km between Amsterdam and Istanbul with 24 other young riders, mostly from the Toronto and Vancouver areas, to raise $100,000 for microcredit collectively.
“If successful, it will be the largest youth-run microcredit fund in the world,” said Ms Wong, whose personal goal is to raise $4,000. (more…)
Posted on May 29, 2009 - by Gavin
How microlending helps communities…
San Francisco Chronicle
Providing small loans to help the poor start or expand businesses is an effective strategy for helping communities ravaged by the recession as well as expanding the overall economy, according to speakers at a conference Thursday.
“In the midst of a depressing downward economic spiral, microfinances are a real ray of hope,” said Eric Weaver, chief executive officer of the Opportunity Fund, a sponsor of the Microfinance California event held at Stanford University. “It’s a wonderful system for generating wealth and organizing economic activity.”
Microfinance lenders like Opportunity Fund provide small loans along with business coaching to low-income entrepreneurs. With a median loan size of $5,000, the San Jose nonprofit claims to create or retain two jobs per business on average.
The survival rate in the United States for such companies is roughly comparable to those of traditional small businesses, according to a survey of studies by the Aspen Institute’s Field program, a microenterprise research group in Washington.
It’s likely to be a growing investment area, as the Obama administration has directed more than $100 million in new funds toward programs that make loans to low-income individuals, including the Community Development Financial Institutions Fund. (more…)
Posted on April 7, 2009 - by Gavin
Co-founder of microfinance organization Kiva.org to speak Thursday at IU…
Indiana University
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — Jessica Jackley, co-founder of Kiva.org, the world’s first person-to-person micro-lending Web site, will speak at 7:30 p.m. Thursday (April 9) at Indiana University on the topic “Eliminating Poverty: A Conversation About Microfinance.”
Jackley’s presentation will take place in the Grand Hall of the Neal-Marshall Black Culture Center, 275 N. Jordan Ave. Food will be provided by local ethnic restaurants. The public is invited.
The event is being presented by the Trockman Microfinance Initiative, with support from the IU Student Association, the Kelley School of Business’ undergraduate and student government programs, the Center for International Business Education and Research, IU departments of political science and economics, the International Studies Program and the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies.
Named as one of the top ideas in 2006 by the New York Times Magazine and called “revolutionary” by the BBC, Kiva.org lets Internet users lend as little as $25 to specific developing world entrepreneurs, providing affordable capital to help them start or expand a small business. (more…)
Posted on March 24, 2009 - by Gavin
Micro-loans for Americans?…
CNN Money
Non-profit Kiva.org plans to launch system of small loans in the U.S.
SAN FRANCISCO (Fortune) — When the economic downturn took hold last autumn, the management team at non-profit Kiva.org made a calculated bet to curb investment, anticipating that donors would slow the volume of small loans they make to entrepreneurs in the developing world. That slowdown never came. Now, the non-profit site is racing to keep up with user demand even while planning to bring its unique form of charity to the U.S.
Nearly 500,000 users have lent almost $65 million, interest-free, to developing-world entrepreneurs through Kiva.org. The nearly four-year-old site received a major boost during its early days from a wave of media publicity (including FORTUNE’s The only non profit that matters) and the very public endorsement by former President Bill Clinton.
Media attention has waned in the last year or so, but growth has only accelerated due both to friend referrals and loyal users who repeatedly re-loan money rather than withdrawing it. The site distributed $3.5 million last month. “The good news is that we’re doing more loans than ever,” says Premal Shah, president of the San Francisco-based organization. “The flip side is that we under-estimated demand. [Our growth] rate exceeds the rate at which we can scale.” (more…)
Posted on March 16, 2009 - by Gavin
Microfinance business thriving…
San Francisco Chronicle
One branch of the otherwise besmirched financial services industry that seems to be thriving is microfinance. Take San Francisco’s Kiva. The Web-based nonprofit ( www.kiva.org) had its biggest month ever in February, funneling close to $4 million in loans to aspiring entrepreneurs in the developing world, be they a market vendor in Azerbaijan or a small grocery store owner in Nigeria. “Every month, we’re fully funding all the applications we get,” said Fiona Ramsey, Kiva’s operations manager.
The funding comes from individual lenders, whose money – as little as $25 – is sent to an applicant they choose from a list on Kiva’s Web site. Despite the recession, Kiva is seeing a “sharp increase” in lenders, said Ramsey, adding to the 460,000 already registered with the organization. “Perhaps it’s because what we’re doing is becoming more relevant to people here,” she said.
So much so that Kiva is looking to add the United States to the 44 countries to which it funnels loans. Ramsey said it would be the first developed nation on Kiva’s list. So far, its loan defaults have been few and far between. (more…)
Posted on March 13, 2009 - by Gavin
Kiva.org creates trend in online microlending…
Tufts Daily
At a school as concerned with public service and active citizenship as Tufts, students constantly search for new ways to help people in their own communities and around the world. Sometimes, however, issues prevent some socially conscious students from contributing as much as they would like to.
Kiva.org, a nonprofit microlending Web site, seeks to address this obstacle by giving people the opportunity to make loans to entrepreneurs in 39 developing countries. During times of economic downturn, most people — especially students — are unable to raise the large amounts of money often required to make a difference or cannot afford short- or long-term service trips. Kiva allows anyone to make a donation as small as $25, and what may seem like a small loan in American dollars can make a huge difference to an entrepreneur in a developing country.
The Web site also addresses a concern associated with making donations through organizations.“If you’re giving a big donation, you don’t really know where it’s going. Not all of your proceeds go straight to the cause. Microloans are more effective because they go straight to individuals and you can track them and see where they go,” sophomore Kexin Chen said.
Posted on September 29, 2008 - by James
Ernst & Young and Kiva.org to Work Together to Increase Transparency of Micro-Loans…
Posted on September 25, 2008 - by James
“The world needs MORE subprime loans…”
What the world needs right now is more subprime lending—a lot more of it. Yes, I know that in the public imagination, subprime lending is the scourge responsible for crippling the U.S. financial system. The massive extension of credit to people who lacked extensive credit histories and documented wages seems, in hindsight, supremely stupid. But far from the madding, depressed crowds of Wall Street, billions of people are starving for credit.
Lending tiny sums to people who live on a few dollars a day—street vendors in New Delhi, goatherds in Kenya—doesn’t carry the glamour or financial rewards of haute banque. And compared with efforts to vaccinate children or build dams, it seems like an exercise comparable to shooting pellets at a runaway rhinoceros. But in an era when a great deal of foreign aid has been wasted or has fallen into the hands of corrupt officials, microlending has built a track record of effective poverty relief. Microcredit pioneer Muhammad Yunus, who founded Bangladesh’s Grameen Bank in 1983, won the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize. And microfinance, which now touches the lives of more than 100 million people, is one of the few bright spots in the troubled financial sector. “We’ve helped about 80,000 entrepreneurs, and the repayment rate is about 98 percent, which is a better performance than consumer credit-card portfolios in the U.S.,” says Premal Shah, president of Kiva.org, an online microcredit organization that allows computer programmers in Seattle to lend sums as low as $25 directly to small-scale grocers in Uganda… [click here to read the rest of this article...]
The MiFi Report
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