Help Kiva and do yourself a good turn
Howard Lake | 29 October 2008 | Blogs
Bryan Miller is right to congratulate Kiva on three years of phenomenal growth. But this growth has not been without its pains. So successful has the site been at attracting loans that Kiva staff have struggled recently to find sufficient micro-entrepreneurs to lend to.
After a month of finding all the projects fully funded each time I visited the site I finally got lucky yesterday and was able to reinvest $150 of credits which had accumulated in my account from repayments on previous loans. I found a couple of projects available to invest in.
One of the people I am now supporting is borrowing from a microfinance institution in Cambodia which is described on the site as ‘a partner of Save the Children’. There are four other MFIs listed as Kiva ‘field partners’ which are ‘partners of Save the Children’. I also noticed Save the Children getting a mention on Global Giving recently – their Empowering Girls in Bangladesh project is listed on the home page as one of the most popular projects on the site.
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In both cases it is Save the Children US which is involved – but there is no reason why their example couldn’t be emulated by international development organisations based in the UK – especially with Global Giving launching here.
Here are three reasons why it could make sense:
- you gain profile for your brand in an arena which is attracting a lot of interest from some very engaged donors
- you help your partners access grants and loan finance – reducing their dependence on you as a funder
- you generate new funding for the issues you’re trying to address
Oh and you could also be helping Kiva which needs more tried and tested microfinance organisations to lend to. Sites like Kiva and Global Giving sprang up because some donors see big development charities as yesterdays news. Come on guys you need to get yourself seen in this space.
About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.