Kiva

Kiva is a new charity organization that I came across last week on someone's blog.  It seemed like a great charity so I looked into it more.  Kiva gives loans to people/groups around the world who need it for various reasons.  They may need a loan to put in an irrigation system, update their roof, buy more supplies for their business, etc.  The loans need to be repaid, so usually the loans were business related so that they could expand their business to bring in more revenue.  There is a set amount they ask for, and a set repayment schedule.  

As a "lender", you can give as little as $25 towards their loan goal (or more if you choose).  For example, a $500 loan will have 20 lenders, each giving $25 (or less lenders if one gives even more).  Each month when that borrower sends money for repayment, it will be divided up between the lenders and put back into your account.  As you are paid back, you can either use your money to loan to others in need, or if you need the money back yourself, you can cash out.  For example, if you loan someone $25 on a one year repayment schedule, you will get around $2 back per month.  So in reality, it would be another year before you could loan another person the full $25, but you can always add more money (paypal or credit card) to your account to loan more out.

http://www.kiva.org/

Kiva is a site where in order to sign up, you need to get "referred" by someone else (such as me!).  You can use the below link (I hope it works) to sign up:

http://www.kiva.org/invitedby/katie66715160

If that doesn't work, please let me know and I can email a link invitation to you.  

When you join right now, you get $25 free to use for your first loan.  Be advised that when that money is paid back, you do not get to keep or reloan that money, but it is still great to be able to lend someone out there the money and see the process of how it all happens without any risk to you.  You can then add your own money and do more loans of your own.  

You can search through the people requesting loans.  You can search by gender, groups/individuals, type of loan, etc.  You can sort by the loan amount, amount left to be funded, expiring soon, etc.  It is great being able to see their stories about the reason they are requesting the loan.

I hope you take a minute to check out the site and sign up through my link if possible.  Even if you just do the one free loan, it still helps someone else out so you should feel good.

Here is the guy I picked to do my first loan with:

http://s3-1.kiva.org/img/w800/1215780.jpg

Duncan is a 43 year old man with 4 kids in Kenya.  He requested a $250 loan, which will be paid back in 12 months.  He requested the loan in order to buy more old vehicle tires.  He recycles the tires to make sandals, which he then sells to make a profit.  He is hoping to continue to grow his business, since he desires to own his own permanent business location in the future.  I picked him because he only needed one or two more people to sponsor him to complete his goal, and because I think it is awesome that he is trying to grow his business (which is also very environmentally friendly by recycling!).  Since I just signed up last week, I don't know how the repayment will go, but I do pray for him that he has success.


Let me know how your experiences go.