Kiva (organization)


Kiva is a 501 non-profit organization that allows people to lend money via the Internet to low-income entrepreneurs and students in 77 countries. Kiva's mission is "to expand financial access to help underserved communities thrive."
Since 2005, Kiva has crowd-funded more than 1.6 million loans, totaling over $1.33 billion, with a repayment rate of between 96 and 97 percent. Over 1.8 million lenders worldwide use the Kiva platform.
Kiva relies on a network of field partners to administer the loans on the ground. These field partners can be microfinance institutions, social impact businesses, schools or non-profit organizations. Kiva includes personal stories of each person who needs a loan so that their lenders can connect with their entrepreneurs on a human level.
Neither Kiva itself nor its individual lenders collect any interest on the loans it facilitates. However, Kiva borrowers do pay interest on most loans to its Field Partners. Kiva is supported by grants, loans, and donations from its users, corporations, and national institutions. Kiva is headquartered in San Francisco, California.

History

Kiva was founded in October 2005 by Matt Flannery and Jessica Jackley. The couple's initial interest in microfinance was inspired by a 2003 lecture given by Grameen Bank's Muhammad Yunus at Stanford Business School. Jessica Jackley worked at the school and invited Matt Flannery to attend the presentation; this was the first time Flannery had heard of microfinance, but it served as a "call to action" for Jackley. Soon after, Jackley began working as a consultant for the nonprofit Village Enterprise, which worked to help start small businesses in East Africa. While Flannery was visiting Jackley in Africa, the two spent time interviewing entrepreneurs about the problems they faced in starting ventures and found the lack of access to start-up capital was a common theme. After returning from Africa, the two began developing their plan for a microfinance project that would grow into Kiva, which means "unity" in Swahili.
In April 2005, Kiva's first seven loans were funded, totaling $3,500, and the original entrepreneurs were subsequently deemed the "Dream Team." By September 2005, the entrepreneurs repaid the entirety of their original loans, and the founders realized they had developed a sustainable microcredit concept. After the success of Kiva's initial stage, Flannery and Jackley founded Kiva as a non-profit. In 2006, notable entrepreneurs and businessmen joined Kiva's staff, including Premal Shah from PayPal and Reid Hoffman, CEO and founder of LinkedIn. Shortly after its first anniversary in October 2006, Kiva reached $1 million in facilitated loans and acquired its twentieth field partner. To the present day, Kiva has continued to grow and expand its field partners while acquiring support from the media and the public.

Lending process

Kiva works with more than 300 microfinance institutions, social impact businesses, schools and non-profit organizations around the world, called "Field Partners," that post profiles of qualified local entrepreneurs on the Kiva website. Lenders browse borrower profiles on kiva.org and choose an entrepreneur they wish to fund. The lenders transfer their funds to Kiva through credit card processing or PayPal, which waives its transaction fee in these cases. Lenders can loan money in increments of $25.
After receiving lenders' money, Kiva aggregates loan capital from the individual lenders and transfers it to the appropriate Field Partners, which disburse the loan to the borrower. Kiva does not charge interest on the capital sent to Field Partners, but often Field Partners do charge some level of interest to borrowers to cover administration costs. Interest is typically higher on loans from microfinance institutions in developing countries than interest rates on larger loans in developed countries because of the administrative costs of overseeing many tiny loans, and the increased risk. As the entrepreneurs repay their loans with interest, the Field Partners remit funds back to Kiva. As the loan is repaid, the Kiva lenders can withdraw their principal or re-lend it to another entrepreneur.

Finances

As of March 15, 2016, Kiva had distributed $827,356,850 in loans from 1,394,336 lenders to 1,928,760 borrowers, and a total of 1,036,558 loans had been funded through Kiva. The average loan size is $411.26, and the average Kiva user has made 10.17 loans. Kiva's current repayment rate for all its partners is 97.1%. According to Alexa: The Web Information Company, Kiva's website ranks in the top 15,000 of all websites worldwide and ranks in the top 5,000 for the United States.
For the fiscal year 2012, Kiva made $15,632,786 in total revenue and had $12,482,528 in total expenses, leaving $3,150,258 to invest. The organization's net assets in 2012 totaled $16,248,638. Kiva itself does not charge interest on its loans; they supply capital to microfinancing institutions for free. These microfinancing institutions then lend out money with high interest compared to bank finance in mature markets, averaging a portfolio yield of over 30%. The organization's main sources of funding are grants, financial backing, and discounted services from many major national corporations and institutions. Chevron Corporation, Visa Inc., and Skoll Foundation awarded Kiva a two-year $1 million grant, $1.5 million grant, and $1 million grant respectively. Kiva also won a $1 million grant in Sam's Club's "Giving Made Simple" campaign and $500,000 in American Express's "Take Part" competition. Additionally, Omidyar Network awarded Kiva a $5 million grant over 5 years to help Kiva expand its field partners and support due diligence.

Management

In 2015, the non-profit employed seventeen persons with salaries totaling more than $100,000. The average salary at Kiva is $80,768.

Areas of work and loan use

Female-owned businesses

As of October 2017, 81% of Kiva's loans have been made to women. Kiva emphasizes supporting women because women can gain the most from microcredit. Patriarchy and a strict division of labor still dominate the societies of many developing countries, and women often suffer the most from poverty because scarce resources are often allocated to a family's males, rather than its females.
In their non-fiction book Half the Sky, Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn highlight Kiva's work along with that of some field partner organizations, such as the Kashf Foundation in Pakistan. With microloans, women gain spending power and spend less on instant gratification vices like alcohol and drugs. With extra income, they are able to educate their children, renovate their residences, or buy modern technologies and medicines. Along with economic power, a woman with a microloan often gains more independence and respect from her husband. Kristof and WuDunn note that microfinance can be a risky path out of poverty. " is fine when the money is pumped into a profitable new business, but if the money isn't invested soundly, then the borrowers become trapped in mounting debts." Nonetheless, the authors endorse Kiva and similar microfinance efforts, writing that "microfinance has done more to bolster the status of women, and to protect them from abuse, than any laws could accomplish."

Green loans

In 2011, Kiva added a new category of loans to help borrowers move to cleaner and safer forms of energy, green agriculture, transport and recycling. Green Kiva loans help fund solar panels, organic fertilizers, high-efficiency stoves, drip irrigation systems, and biofuels. As of December 2013, Kiva lenders had crowd-funded 4,600 green loans.

Support for higher education

Getting access to university and graduate level education is extremely difficult for poor students in developing countries. Outside of the United States and a few other wealthy industrialized countries, student loans are rare, leaving families without substantial savings, and with few options. As of 2007, in low income countries only 7% of the population received university or graduate level education.
Higher education has been shown to play a significant role in developing a country, and UNESCO reports that "higher education makes a significant contribution to reduction in absolute as well as relative poverty,"
In 2010, Kiva began a Student Microloans program that allowed lenders to help support students seeking access to higher education. Student loans are funded with the same crowd-funding approach, and typically students have 1–3 years to pay back their loans.
In 2014, the education offerings on Kiva expanded greatly when the organization began a deeper partnership with Vittana. Vittana works on the ground in countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America, developing loan alternatives for low-income students. Through the partnership, all loans sourced by Vittana now appear on Kiva for funding.

Medical loans

Some Kiva field partners, such as Alivio Capital, specialize in funding medical loans. Others may fund medical loans as well as other loans. A development scholar in Ghana has suggested that microfinance medical loans can be an effective way to close the gap in medical care access in developing countries.

Support for refugees

In July 2017, Kiva launched a World Refugee Fund, a $250,000 matching fund to provide support to refugees and host communities in countries including Lebanon, Jordan, and Turkey. As refugees repay the loans, they build a track record in their new locations. The fund is to be followed by a rotating fund of up to $9M in loan capital.

Other Kiva programs

Kiva U.S.

In 2011, Kiva launched Kiva U.S., a 0% interest peer-to-peer lending pilot program for entrepreneurs in the United States, as part of efforts to "cut lending costs through technology." The loans posted to Kiva U.S. are often from borrowers who have been rejected for loans by traditional banking institutions, but on Kiva U.S. they don't need to be able to produce high credit scores or collateral. Kiva U.S. uses a system of trustees, who vouch for the borrowers. Kiva U.S. trustees can be local non-profits, service organizations, businesses, faith organizations or community leaders.
The average loan size for US borrowers is $5,000. US borrowers average about two years to repay loans.

Kiva Labs

awarded a $3 million Global Impact Award to Kiva in 2013 to fund the Kiva Labs project, which looks for ways to increase the flexibility and impact of microfinance. Labs initiatives include lowering interest rates, providing more flexible repayment terms that accommodate issues like seasonal profits in farming, and offering longer-term loans for investments like education. Labs also focuses on providing access to clean energy technology and using mobile technology in ways that will bridge the knowledge gap. At the time of the lab's launch, Kiva lenders had crowdfunded "132,000 agricultural loans; 4,600 green loans, and 670 mobile tech loans."

Kiva City

Kiva City provides local business owners and entrepreneurs in U.S. cities with the opportunity to crowdsource loans. It was launched by Kiva and former US President Bill Clinton at the Clinton Global Initiative America conference in Chicago in 2011. Kiva City locations include: Detroit, New Orleans, Los Angeles, Washington D.C., Newark, Richmond, Little Rock, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Milwaukee, Louisville, San Francisco, New York City, and Oakland.
In less than a year, the Kiva City programs in Richmond, Virginia, helped fund more than $100,000 in loans to local businesses.

Issues

Interest rates

As of November 2018, a total of 1,530,180 loans had been funded on Kiva. The following table shows these loans sorted according to interest rate.
Number of loansInterest rate
150,6150%
5,5700.5-10%
152,92610.5-20%
387,67720.5-30%
334,20530.5-40%
330,35440.5-50%
116,15450.5-60%
51,02660.5% +
1,653No interest rate listed
1,530,180Total

Some people, including microfinance pioneer Muhammad Yunus, argue that the interest rates of many microcredit institutions are unreasonably high. In his 2007 book he argues that microfinance institutions that charge more than 15% above their long-term operating costs should face penalties.
According to its web site, Kiva quotes interest rates as the "self reported average rate charged by the Field Partner to the entrepreneur." Kiva does not publish the interest rates charged for the individual loans funded through its website. However, it does publish the average "Portfolio Yield" of each of its field partners, as a way for prospective lenders to estimate the cost to the borrower of the loans they consider funding. The "Portfolio Yield" measures the average income earned from the field partner's outstanding loan portfolio. Some observers have pointed out that the "Portfolio Yield" measure is unreliable, and does not directly reflect the actual price that borrowers are paying for the loans.
Kiva defends the interest rates of its field partners, however, saying its field partners provide much better rates than local alternatives, but must charge what they do because "the costs of making a micro-loan in the developing world are higher versus larger loans in the West." Kiva itself does not keep any of the interest collected, but operates instead exclusively on donations.
For example, in 2009, micro-loans from Kiva partners in Guatemala averaged 23.16% for the equivalent of US$430 lent on average, comparable to the commercial BanRural rate of 24.5% for a loan of US$635..
The high interest rates inherent in the Kiva model have inspired several other online microlending services which aim to reduce the cost to borrowers. One example, United Prosperity, uses lender funds as security to leverage matching loan amounts from local banks, at lower interest rates than would otherwise be available to the borrowers. United Prosperity works with field partners in India and Sri Lanka.
Kiva itself launched a more direct peer-to-peer microlending platform, called Kiva Zip, in 2012. Kiva Zip transfers funds directly to borrowers without outsourcing disbursements and repayment collection to field partners. Instead, Kiva Zip partners with local institutions called Trustees, who vet loan applicants, provide mentorship, and may post profiles and updates on their behalf. Currently, Kiva Zip borrowers do not pay any interest or fees. Lenders are protected from currency risk but do not earn interest. Kiva Zip is considered an experimental platform, and offers loans in the United States and in Kenya. In the future, it hopes to expand to other locations. Kiva Zip's repayment rate is 89.4%.

Interest rates by field partner

As of November 2018, there are a total of 332 field partners listed on the Kiva website and their status is as follows: 173 Active, 41 Inactive, 14 Paused, and 104 Experimental. In addition, 178 former field partners are listed as Closed.
The following table shows the "portfolio yield" of a sampling of field partners. "Portfolio yield" figures are calculated by dividing all interest and fees paid by borrowers to the field partner by the average loan portfolio of the field partner that given year. The figure provides a more accurate insight into the costs of borrowing because it includes fees associated with borrowing.
Field partnerRegionPortfolio yield %StatusCorrect on
Bolivia20ActiveNov. 10, 2018
Bolivia32ActiveNov. 10, 2018
Cambodia23ActiveNov. 10, 2018
Cambodia, Thailand20ActiveNov. 10, 2018
Cambodia22ActiveNov. 10, 2018
Cameroon20ActiveNov. 10, 2018
Dominican Republic39ActiveNov. 10, 2018
Ecuador29ActiveNov. 10, 2018
Guatemala49ActiveNov. 10, 2018
Honduras43ActiveNov. 10, 2018
Indonesia23ActiveNov. 10, 2018
Kenya36ActiveNov. 10, 2018
Lebanon31ActiveNov. 10, 2018
Lebanon32ActiveNov. 10, 2018
Nepal19ActiveNov. 10, 2018
Nicaragua57ActiveNov. 10, 2018
Nicaragua21ActiveNov. 10, 2018
Palestine, Jordan15ActiveNov. 10, 2018
Paraguay40ActiveNov. 12, 2018
Peru36ActiveNov. 12, 2018
Peru41ActiveNov. 12, 2018
Philippines21ActiveNov. 12, 2018
Philippines60ActiveNov. 12, 2018
Philippines25ActiveNov. 12, 2018
Philippines28ActiveNov. 12, 2018
Rwanda41ActiveNov. 12, 2018
Samoa45ActiveNov. 12, 2018
Senegal20ActiveNov. 12, 2018
Senegal19ActiveNov. 12, 2018
Tanzania66ActiveNov. 12, 2018
Tajikistan31ActiveNov. 12, 2018
Tajikistan40ActiveNov. 12, 2018
Uganda60ActiveNov. 12, 2018
Vietnam19ActiveNov. 12, 2018
Bolivia19ActiveNov. 12, 2018
Pakistan39% PYActiveNov. 8, 2018
Georgia30ActiveNov. 8, 2018
Peru32ActiveNov. 8, 2018
Kenya, Tanzania18% APRActiveNov. 8, 2018
Honduras34ActiveNov. 8, 2018
El Salvador29ActiveNov. 8, 2018
Ecuador23ActiveNov. 8, 2018
Jordan37ActiveNov. 8, 2018
Nicaragua38ActiveNov. 8, 2018
Kyrgyzstan21ActiveNov. 8, 2018
Armenia26ActiveNov. 8, 2018
Ecuador15ActiveNov. 8, 2018
Philippines46ActiveNov. 8, 2018
Peru37ActiveNov. 8, 2018
Ecuador17ActiveNov. 8, 2018
Dominican Republic5% APRActiveNov. 8, 2018
Timor-Leste28ActiveNov. 8, 2018
Ghana48ActiveNov. 8, 2018
Kenya4% APRActiveNov. 8, 2018
Colombia33ActiveNov. 8, 2018
Kenya41ActiveNov. 8, 2018
Colombia40ActiveNov. 8, 2018
RwandaN/AActiveNov. 8, 2018
Peru31% APRActiveNov. 8, 2018
Mali26ActiveNov. 8, 2018
United States, Nigeria, Nepal, Mali, Kyrgyzstan, Ghana, Mexico, India, Cambodia, Kenya, Uganda0%ActiveNov. 8, 2018
Lebanon40ActiveNov. 8, 2018
Kenya40ActiveNov. 8, 2018
Zimbabwe0% APRActiveNov. 8, 2018
Nigeria18% APRActiveNov. 8, 2018
Uganda51ActiveNov. 8, 2018
Tajikistan32ActiveNov. 8, 2018
Zambia, MalawiN/AActiveNov. 8, 2018
El Salvador33ActiveNov. 8, 2018
Uganda47ActiveNov. 8, 2018
Guatemala51ActiveNov. 12, 2018
Mozambique50ActiveNov. 12, 2018
Zimbabwe69% APRActiveNov. 12, 2018
country74% APRActiveNov. 12, 2018
country78% APRActiveNov. 12, 2018

Pre-disbursement of funds

When Kiva began, borrowers had to wait until their loans were funded on the Kiva website to receive the funds. Since then, the system has changed, so that loans are disbursed to borrowers before their stories are posted to Kiva's website. Disbursing loans sooner has a positive impact on the borrowers, who no longer need to wait weeks to receive their funding and can thus take advantage of time-sensitive business opportunities. This is disclosed on Kiva's site; each loan proposal states whether funds were pre-disbursed. Thus, lenders' loan funds are likely to go to borrowers other than those chosen by the lenders. However, since the pay-back behaviour of the specific borrower chosen by the lender does influence whether or not the lender gets their funds back, there is at least some connection between the lender and the specific borrower. Whether lenders' preferences are used for lender preference trend analysis by any field partners or Kiva is not stated. Kiva's response has been to keep pre-disbursing but be clearer about the process.

Full-repayment frequency uncertainty

Whether defaults are extremely low has been questioned on the ground that a field partner may pay Kiva for loans defaulted to the field partner in order to maintain the field partner's good credit with Kiva. Whether interest rates collected by field partners are enough to pay for significant defaults depends on local economic conditions for each field partner.

Controversial loans

In 2008, Kiva featured the borrowing profile of a Peruvian woman asking for a loan to buy equipment for her cockfighting business. This sparked debate among the Kiva lending community about the principles of the organization, and many complained that the organization was promoting cruelty to animals. Matt Flannery responded to the debate by providing an overview of the legal issues surrounding the debate, and took a more relativist stance. Flannery wrote on Socialedge.org — a blog site designed to connect entrepreneurs for social benefit —
This position has caused some lenders to pull their funds. Others who wanted to continue to lend through Kiva created "Kivans Against Cockfighting Loans" in May 2009, and, as of June 8, 2012, it has lent $15,625 to borrowers pursuing projects that do not involve the harming of animals.

Controversy regarding Strathmore University and Opus Dei

In Spring 2013, one of Kiva's field partners, Strathmore University, posted many large loans to cover full tuitions for students from low-income regions in Kenya who could not otherwise afford higher education. Kiva also established a field office on the Strathmore campus. Shortly after, many lenders raised concerns because Strathmore University is a corporate undertaking of Opus Dei. This spawned a debate in the Kiva forums, leading to an open letter from Kiva's CEO Matt Flannery addressing the issue.

Promotions and marketing strategies

In March 2012, Reid Hoffman, LinkedIn's co-founder, lent Kiva $1 million. Kiva then allowed 40,000 people to lend $25 for "free." Lenders still choose a borrower, but the borrower will pay back Hoffman instead of the lender who chose them. Kiva hopes that the "free" users will lend to more of their projects, and thus increase their overall user base.
In his 2007 book , Bill Clinton covers Kiva.org and the work the organization is currently doing and has done in the past.

External reviews

The following independent entities have reviewed Kiva.