Kiva.org Review

Kiva is a cool new approach to doing something good.  It's not like most charity where once you give, the charity uses your money, or gives it away to people who need it, and then it's gone.  With Kiva, you loan the money to a specific borrower of your choosing, and then it's repaid back to you when they repay the loan.  You can choose to reloan the money to someone else, or to keep the cash. 

It's a great way to help entrepreneurs in less fortunate places help make money to improve their lives and could end up not even costing you anything at all.  While the rate of non-payment on the loans is unbelievably low (in the low single digits percentage wise, I'm thinking it's like 3% with most of that related to the recent war in Kenya where people can't pay because of the violence), the loans are not guaranteed, so you do run a risk of not getting your money back.  So I don't advise investing money that you can't afford to lose.  You can plan to get it back, but don't depend on it. 

The "default" loan amount is 25 dollars, and that's the minimum you can loan.  So you have to have 25 to invest to make your loan, but in the grand scheme of charity minimum donations, I don't think that's very high.  You can opt to loan more than 25 dollars if you'd like to, but there is ABSOLUTELY no pressure to.  You can pick another amount if you want from a drop down menu, but it's not like a lot of things I've seen where they try and make you feel a bit less generous if you pick the "minimum" amount.  At Kiva, it's the default amount.  You have to actually put a tiny extra effort into even loaning any other amount.  I like that.  Makes it pretty do-able even if you're not rich.  And if you re-lend the money after you get a loan paid back, you can really make even a little bit of money go a long way.  With traditional charity, you give 25 dollars,and you do 25 dollars worth of good.  With Kiva, you lend 25 dollars, get that 25 back, lend that same 25 dollars again and again, possibly doing hundreds and dollars of good with the same 25 bucks. 

American dollars go a long way in the developing world.  Even though the loan amounts here seem small, they go a long way over there.  Here, a loan of 150 dollars wouldn't fund opening a store, but it does it Cambodia.  Here, a thousand dollars wouldn't pay for much farming equipment, and seeds, and the hiring of laborers,but it does in Uganda.  Many of the people's needs are so small, that they band together with other entrepreneurs and split the total loan amount since it wouldn't be feasible for the banks to deal with loans of tiny amounts like 20 dollars.  The group will band together and secure a loan of a couple of hundred up to a couple of thousand dollars, and guarantee that they will all make sure that the whole loan gets paid off. 

The borrower's descriptions are often very fascinating.  Most are pretty detailed and some are VERY detailed about the individual's life and family and their business and how the loan they're requesting will be used. You get to see pictures of the individual . You get journal emails from time to time after you lend untill the loan is fully repaid to show how your loan has been used and how the progress is coming on it's repayment.  And there's tons of variety of borrowers.  The site has lots of listings added all the time throughout the day.  Usually there's between 150 and 300 listings up at any given time.  And there's a ton of different people and businesses and regions. There's something out there that is likely to strike a chord with most anybody. 

Kiva isn't affiliated with any particular religion or political agenda.  The loans aren't screened for any politically correct purposes other than a few fairly universal limits like that the money can't be used to fund illegal drugs or prostitution etc.  I like that.  It lets the lenders decide personally what and who they want to finance individually.  And borrowers are getting money, without any rhetoric or political slant.  It's purely economic.

It's fascinating how much I've learned about the rest of the world since becoming a Kiva lender.  I'm amazed at the rich cultures and cultural differences of the rest of the world.  And I feel so connected with the people and places my loans go to.  I couldn't have pointed to Uganda on a map before Kiva.  All I knew was it was in Africa, and Idi Amin used to rule it.  But after loaning to a woman who runs a coffee and banana plantation in Buikwe, Uganda I was interested  in learning all about Uganda. 

You make your loans quickly and easily through PayPal.  Just click on the lend button on the loan you would like fund, then go to your cart and check out through Paypal.  Fast.  Simple.  Kiva doesn't have to ever see your banking/credit card info.  You don't have to enter a bunch of stuff to check out.  Easy is good.

It's very easy to lend through Kiva. You have a ton of control over how anonymous or non-anonymous you wish to be.   You can set up a lender page with lots of info, pictures of yourself, etc (kind of like a social networking page like a myspace/facebook) if you want to.  Or you can be really sparse about what info you give.  You do have to give your first and last name to Kiva, but you can choose to have your lending listed as anything you want or even "anonymous".  You can choose to give Kiva your personal info like your email, address, etc, or you can not give it.  None of it's required.  And I like that.  A lot of charity stuff requires your contact info like address, phone number, etc.  And often they re-sell and share that stuff and you'll find your self on a TON of mailing lists for every charity in the universe to solicit you for a donation.  Not Kiva.  You don't have to worry about your privacy at all. 

The Kiva experience is totally engaging.  You don't just give some money to a good cause,then be done with it.  You find yourself checking in on your entrepreneurs and following their loan repayment and looking for new people to lend to as your loans get paid back.  It's sort of addictive.  I often visit to check on my loans, and occasionally find myself browsing the loans that still need funded and find new ones I just can't pass up.  You feel really connected who your money is supporting and like you're a part of process, investing in working people, helping them better themselves.  More like a partner.