The United States Department of State USINFO, December 12, 2007
Web Site Lets People Offer Microloans to Borrowers Worldwide
“Kiva did not invent microfinance - the supply of loans, savings and other small-scale financial services to the poor - but its creation of an online marketplace for lenders and borrowers is innovative enough to have led to explosive growth of over 30 percent per month since the Web site's founding in 2005.”
The Economist, December 2007
Six of the best: Our selection of trend-spotters' tips for 2008
“'Peer-to-peer' lending is working its way into the charitable sector, too: Kiva.org puts potential 'social investors' in touch with small businesses in the developing world, which promise to send e-mail updates on how the business is developing.”
USA Today, December 11 2008
Green gifts: 'Oh, you shouldn't have - really!'
“Stephanie Preble, 37, a Seattle teacher, caterer and mother of three, says her family can live without Christmas wrapping paper. They also plan to donate to Kiva.org, the online loan-giving charity, but will still keep the traditional stocking-stuffers and gifts from Santa for the kids.”
Domino, December/January 2008
Antidote to Overload
“Microlending is one of the cleverest ways to give... At Kiva.org, a $25 gift card you purchase for a friend can then help a struggling business owner in a third-world country, like a candy-store owner in Ukraine who wants to expand inventory, or a vegetable vendor in Azerbaijan.”
NEED, December 2007
Generosity: Gifts that Give
“Ever thought of dabbling in a new business venture? Do you have $25 USD to loan to someone transitioning out of poverty? Kiva could be just the organization you are looking for.”
Common Ground, December 2007
More Love, Less Stuff
“By "sponsoring" a small businesses or individual in the developing world through Kiva (kiva.org), you can help the world's working poor make real progress towards economic independence.”
Business Nation, December 5, 2007
Kiva
“A look at how a network of small lenders, brought together by a remarkable website, is making a big difference in developing nations, one micro loan at a time.”
Watch here.
Minnesota Public Radio, December 4, 2007
Where tiny loans make a big difference
“Kiva has received a lot of attention for the innovative way it allows people around the world to make loans. Everyday people can act as banks, and make a loan of as little as $25 over the Internet.”
Listen here.
Forbes.com, November 14, 2007
Microfinance Movement
“Want to help start a small business in an emerging market from the comfort of your armchair? Well now you can, with Kiva.org.”
Watch here.
Al Jazeera, November 8, 2007
Riz Khan
“Becoming a banker to the poor is a lot easier than you think. You can now help lift people out of poverty with... USD 25, thanks to a website that effectively targets the needy. Kiva.org is only 2 years old but in that short time it has made big waves in the world of microfinance.”
Watch here.
Stanford Magazine, November/December 2007
Small Change, Big Payoff
“Like MySpace or Facebook, Kiva functions as a community, so you can browse through profiles of other lenders (complete with photos, hometowns, philosophies and portfolios) to see who's involved with what. The site's Journal section offers progress reports on the entrepreneurs (and their repayments) as well as recommendations. Then you can pick a business to help finance.”
CBS News, October 31, 2007
Fight Poverty With Online Microlending
“You've heard the story - "give a man a fish and he eats for a day, give him a fishing rod and he eats for life." In this business model, you lend him money to buy the fishing rod so that he can fish, sell his fish, hire an apprentice and repay the loan.”
Smithsonian Magazine, October 2007
37 Under 36: America's Young Innovators in the Arts and Sciences.
I, Lender
“Kiva operates on a people-to-people model, allowing private individuals to make loans to borrowers seeking to establish small businesses in developing countries.”
African Path, October 15, 2007
Microfinance: Kiva unlocks the golden pot with a click
“Kiva is like a feel good story where everyone wins: the lender, the borrower and Kiva's partners. There is room for expansion and a few more smiles for entrepreneurs in developing countries.”
Hartford Courant, October 4, 2007
Tiny Business Loans Pay Big Emotional Return
“A nonprofit based in San Francisco, Kiva has not yet celebrated its two-year anniversary and is already attracting international attention for its unique mission - blending the principles of microfinancing with the power of online social networking to deliver business loans to the world's working poor.”
San Francsico Chronicle, September 30, 2007
Microcredit movement tackling poverty one tiny loan at a time
“Kiva.org, praised by Clinton in his new book, is the first organization to take microcredit online and link lenders and borrowers. People who want to make loans - the minimum is $25 - choose recipients on the Web site and use their credit cards and PayPal.”
Sydney Morning Herald, September 29, 2007
Harnessing the power of the net to support Third World businesses
“Last month I became a financier, or, to be more specific, a microfinancier. I lent $50 to Saitia Teropika in Samoa. I've never been to Samoa or met Teropika, but I know she's 37 years old and has nine children. I know the money is to help her buy seeds and pesticides to expand her market garden. I know all this because of an innovative organisation called Kiva, which supports charity in the form of zero-interest business loans. It does this by using a website to link people in the First World to people in the Third.”
The Wall Street Journal Online, September 23, 2007
Help Impoverished Entrepreneurs With Loans
“While Americans gave record sums to charity last year, some are finding that loaning their money can be altruistic as well... The basic idea is to make small, short-term "microloans" to impoverished entrepreneurs who don't otherwise have access to capital -- helping improve their businesses and therefore their lives.”
NHK, September 8, 2007
Let's save Uganda with 25 dollars per loan: A new Loan Business challenging poverty
“'Kiva' is a social venture which supports people in developing nations with a common citizen's 25 dollars per loan... Already they have collected 10 million dollars and loaned to more than 30 nations in the world. Uganda is where the Flannerys started this loan, and now more than 500 people have received loans, creating businesses such as peanut butter retail, taxi driver, etc.”
Morning Edition, September 7, 2007
President Clinton speaks about Kiva.org as a way that people can give:
“With Kiva you can make a small business loan of as little as $25, to a business man or a woman whom you select on the Kiva website. It will be delivered through a local non-governmental organization that can be trusted to monitor the progress of the business and make sure the money gets paid back. They have an enormous repayment rate, and then when you see what your loan did, when it's repaid, you can either turn around and loan the money to a new Kiva recipient or you can take your money back.”
Listen here
The Oprah Winfrey Show, September 4, 2007
Make a Difference
“'A revolutionary idea has made it possible for anyone to help people in Third World countries via the Internet - and it can be addictive! Visitors to Kiva.org can read the story of someone who needs help starting a small business. For as little as $25, they can choose a loan to partially finance - and help lift someone out of poverty in the process.”
Today Show, September 3, 2007
Changing the world one loan at a time
“' Kiva has re-invented lending in the 21st century. Anyone with at least $25 can log on to the site, browse the profiles of entrepreneurs in third-world countries and choose which cause to support.”
Watch the show here.
PC Magazine, August 27, 2007
Top 100 Undiscovered Web Sites
“Want to sink your cash into something more rewarding than an Apple iPhone? Put that $600 to work helping those less fortunate with Kiva, the site that lets you easily make small loans to deserving entrepreneurs worldwide.”
The Wall Street Journal, August 21, 2007
A New Generation Reinvents Philanthropy
“' You can donate money to a charity, but it seems like it just goes into a pile and you never know what really goes on there,' says Mr. Alamo, the Kiva lender. 'With Kiva, you just pick someone out and lend to them directly and watch what they do and how they succeed. That was the main appeal.' Kiva, which started in the fall of 2005, has already drawn more than 89,600 lenders who have lent $10 million.”
Yahoo! News, August 21, 2007
The $10 Million Giveaway?
“In their office in San Francisco's Mission District, Matt and Jessica Flannery and Premal Shah work with the fervor and techno savvy of an Internet startup aiming for an IPO. But they aren't chasing the cash for themselves. They're doing it for Esther Egbulu in Nigeria, a mother of six who wants an $800 loan to stock her shop with frozen chickens and turkey...”
Kiplinger's Finance, August 2007
Fight Poverty With Micro Loans
“You don't have to be rich to be a venture capitalist. For as little as $25, you can provide seed capital to a fledgling baker in Azerbaijan or fund a home-products wholesaler in Ecuador.”
MSN Money, July 25, 2007
7 ways to buy happiness
“Kiva then pools these microloans so that specific individuals -- you can read their profiles on the Kiva Web site -- can accomplish their goals..”
The Seattle Times, June 22, 2007
Banking on Bulgaria's Gypsy businesses
“Through Kiva, we made interest-free loans of $25 each to Diana and to Silvia and Todor whose pictures, bios and business plans were posted on the nonprofit's Web site. Then on a recent trip to Bulgaria, we veered off the tourist route to visit our new partners and see how business was going.”
Here on Earth: Radio Without Borders, June 19, 2007
Kiva - Life Changing Loans
“Direct and straightforward lending to individuals in developing countries is here... You don't have to be a Bill Gates to drastically change people's lives anymore.”
Listen here.
Marketplace Money, June 8, 2007
Give to Global Entrepreneurship
“Normally, microfinancing happens on a larger scale. Banks and other financial outfits lend small amounts of money to people who are too poor to get a traditional loan. Usually, in the developing world. But several organizations - like Kiva.org - now allow you to become a microlender... New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof recently wrote about some loans that he's made. So we invited him to talk about the experience.”
Listen here.
ABC World News Tonight, June 5, 2007
Peace Through PayPal?
“In Kirkuk, a city in northern Iraq that wavers between war and unsteady peace, a woman named Khadeja runs a beauty shop in the poorest section of town. She needs $1,200 to keep her business going -- a business that supports her parents and disabled brother. In Los Gatos, Calif., a real estate broker named Debby Bright is giving her a loan. Separated by roughly 7,000 miles, Bright and Khadeja connected through Kiva, an online lending network which recently added Iraqis to its list of entrepreneurs in poor countries who are looking to build up a business.”
Watch the program here
CNN, May 24, 2007
CNN Heroes: Community Crusaders
“Kiva -- which means "unity" in Swahili -- allows individuals to make loans as small as $25 to entrepreneurs in developing countries. Since Kiva.org was launched more than two years ago, it has brokered more than $6.5 million in collateral-free loans to more than 9,000 businesses.”
Watch here.
BBC Click, May 4, 2007
Social lending gains net interest
“The social lending site Kiva allows lenders to give to a specific entrepreneur in a poor or developing world country... This sort of scheme is generally called Microfinance. It is not new, but the web's ability to allow anyone to become a banker to the world's poor certainly is.”
Watch the program here
World Vision Report, April 15, 2007
Direct Loans to Fight Poverty
“It's now possible for someone in the United States to make a small mini-loan directly to a person in need overseas. Just go to www.kiva.org, select a recipient, and make the loan. Virginia builder Tom Hutchinson did that. Host Peggy Wehmeyer hooked up Hutchison and the woman in Uganda who received his $50 loan for a meeting on the phone.”
Listen here
Houston Chronicle, April 14, 2007
Anyone can lend a hand via Web
“More than 3,000 institutions around the world offer small, collateral-free "microcredit" loans to more than 113 million poor people. But Kiva, which boasts more than 54,000 lenders, is different in that it allows individuals in wealthy countries to lend directly — in amounts as little as $25 — to individuals in poorer ones.”
ABC 7 News, April 13, 2007
Local Website Helps Third World Countries Do Business
“A Bay Area nonprofit is changing lives in towns and villages half a world away. Kiva.org lets anyone with just a little bit of money be a banker to the poor.”
Watch here
Forum, April 6, 2007
Microfinance and Social Justice Philanthropy
“Kiva just shows how compelling this idea can be and why micro-finance has been such a success as a policy initiative. It taps into the belief of many people who want to find ways to make a positive change in poor countries, poor regions, and shows how you can do it effectively.”
TIME, April 05, 2007
Lending a hand
“When Melecio Penafiel wanted to expand his tailoring shop in Guayaquil, Ecuador, last May, he didn't go to the bank or ask his relatives for help. His seed money arrived via the Internet. Using the website Kiva.org a Bay Area software engineer named Nathan Folkert lent Penafiel the $500 he needed to buy two new sewing machines, fabrics and thread for higher-quality suits. Folkert has never met Penafiel but says making the loan "felt like I was giving him a shot at the American Dream.”
San Jose Mercury News, March 16, 2007
Kiva spreads Valley wealth globally
“If you haven't yet heard of Kiva.org, a San Francisco non-profit that at just 18 months old is already the leading online microcredit site, you're about to...It's a remarkably simple system that highlights the power of online communities. Yet just as remarkable is how adeptly Kiva has harnessed the collective power of the Silicon Valley tech community.”
Slate, March 15, 2007
A Good Run for Your Money
Jude Stewart rates Kiva.org highest of six microlending websites.
“Finally: microlending as I'd imagined it...Kiva combines online community with microlending in a way that's truly exciting. It's remarkably compelling to see your borrower face to face - you can even contact them via their local lender rep.”
Foreign Policy, March/April 2007
Reach Out and Lend
”Don't let the fact that Kiva.org looks like Match.com fool you. It's a serious enterprise that enables person-to-person microlending from folks living in rich countries to entrepreneurs in the developing world.”
Newsweek, February 19, 2007
Microlending Do It Online
“Kiva.org is perhaps the leader in the field of microcredit online.”
Computerworld, January 29, 2007
Click and change the world: Microfinance for the masses
“Kiva, a San Francisco-based start-up, is using technology to connect small-stakes lenders around the world with impoverished entrepreneurs in developing countries - a feat that's helping to change the nature of microfinancing and global giving itself.”
Current TV, January 7, 2007
EBay for Do-Gooders
“Leveraging the Internet and a worldwide network of microfinance institutions (MFIs), Kiva lets individuals lend as little as $25 to help fund small businesses run by low-income entrepreneurs around the world.”
All Things Considered, December 23, 2006.
Young Donors Turn to Micro Loans
"If you've got even $25 to lend, you can point and click and become part of a global village promoting sustainable development."
Listen Now.
BusinessWeek Small Biz, Winter 2006
A Tale of Two Lenders
“Kiva works only with entrepreneurs, which it finds with the help of microfinance institutions in developing countries. Those partners bring their clients to Kiva instead of to a local bank.”
The Seattle Times, December 18, 2006.
A web of giving
"Philanthropy used to be balls and receptions catering to high net-worth individuals... I think there's something democratizing if you can bring technology into it and let the average person be like a Bill Gates or a Rockefeller."
Frontline/World, October 31, 2006.
Uganda: A Little Goes A Long Way
Show synopsis: "A San Francisco company has taken the idea of microfinance and upgraded it for the Web. Radio reporter Clark Boyd... travels to Uganda for FRONTLINE/World, where the first recipients of money collected through Kiva's Web site are building and expanding businesses."
Watch the video here.
The Wall Street Journal, October 21, 2006.
Small Loans, Good Intentions: Web Sites to Help You Act Like the Nobel Peace Prize Winner
"You, too, can have a big impact with a small amount of money."
ReadyMade, October/November, 2006.
A Little Largesse Goes A Long Way
"Becoming a junior phiolanthropist is simple: select from a list of profiled small busiensses in countries such as Ecuador and Uganda, choose any loan amount (as low as $25), and send it via PayPal...If only the Rockefellers had it this easy."
Good Magazine, Sept/Oct 2006.
D.I.Y. Venture Capitalists
"Would-be investors log on to Kiva, scan through profiles of low-income entrepreneurs-say, a man who wants to open a ashoe shop in Honduras or a goat farmer in Uganda - and shell out as litte as $25, via PayPal, to the recipient of their choice...the money provided through Kiva is a vital influx of capital for fledgling businesses around the world."
BusinessWeek Online, August 16, 2006.
Making Microfinance Easier
"New Kiva board member Reid Hoffman, CEO and co-founder of LinkedIn, says Kiva's got the right mix of elements to help it grow. Hoffman says he sees the same potential in Kiva that he saw in LinkedIn. "This has all the characteristics that could get into the hundreds of thousands or millions of users," he says."
The Nilson Report, August, 2006.
Peer-to-Peer Lending
"Kiva.org is the only not-for-profit peer-to-peer lender. It connects lenders in 30 developed markets with low-income entrepreneurs in 11 developing countries who need loans for their small businesses."
BusinessWeek, July 31, 2006.
A Little Money Goes A Long Way: Using the power of social networking to help small businesses around the world
"Friends and neighbors have been lending one another money forever, but as the Web makes virtual neighbors of strangers, Kiva, which is Swahili for 'agreement' or 'unity,' is harnessing the power of social networking to support microenterprise in the developing world."
ABC News, July 27, 2006.
Giving from the U.S. to Uganda
"A woman in East Africa is looking for a loan to try and buy some livestock - keep in mind that these steer are her family's livelihood and they could mean the difference between survival and severe poverty - but thanks to the internet and (Kiva) people from as far away as Europe, Asia and even the United States can all give toward her success in Kenya."
The Wall Street Journal, July 24, 2006.
Want to Bid on a Loan?
"Kiva.org... allows consumers to lend money to entrepreneurs and small businesses in developing countries."
NPR, July 17, 2006.
Is Microfinance Changing the World?
Click here to listen to KUOW's Weekday program as broadcast on NPR featuring Matt Flannery (CEO, Kiva.org), Alex Counts (President and CEO of Grameen Foundation USA) and Raj Shah (Director for Financial Services and Agriculture with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation).
BusinessWeek Online, July 11, 2006.
An eBay for Microfinance
Click here to listen to BusinessWeek Online's podcast featuring Kiva as Innovation of the Week.
Entrepreneur, May 2006
Lend a Hand
"An inexpensive feel-good investment opportunity...All loaned funds go directly to the applicants, and most loans are repaid in full."
BBC News, March 1, 2006.
Online loans help world's poor
"...revolutionising how donors and lenders in the US are connecting with small entrepreneurs in developing countries."
Click here to listen to this story as broadcast on PRI's "The World", February 15, 2006.
CNN Money, January 17, 2006.
Be a global financier... on a shoestring
"If you've got 25 bucks, a PC and a PayPal account, you've now got the wherewithal to be an international financier."
The Wall Street Journal, January 5, 2006.
A New Way to Do Well By Doing Good
"Smaller investors can also make loans of as little as $25 to specific individual entrepreneurs through a service launched last fall by Kiva."
The Village Voice, November 23, 2005.
Bigger Brother
"Kiva simply democratizes access to a worldwide microfinance movement that has been empowering the working poor for two decades."
