Highlight: Kiva

Today's highlight is on a innovative firm called Kiva. Kiva is known as the world's first person to person microfinance firm. It hopes to connect people through their website. It is an easy and convenient way for people to get personally involved in helping a struggling individual through microfinance. Lenders can go online on the site and browse through various entrepeneurs' profiles that are provided by microfinance institutional partners. They choose the entrepeneurs that seem the most promising and use PayPal to send the funds to the institution that will provide the entrepenuer with the money. Over time the entrepenuer will pay back the loan and once the loan is repaid the lender may reloan to another entrepenuer or donate their funds to Kiva or whatever they want. Kiva has also enabled lenders to form and join groups that can align people to a certain cause or interest. For example, the top two lending groups are the Atheists and the Christians. The groups can pool their money or find entrepenuers individually to lend their money. Kiva keeps track of all the donations made and posts the totals on their website. This competition could fuel the groups to donate more than if they were just individuals. Kiva also has ways that allows lenders to get personally involved with the lives of the entrepenuers by becoming a Field Partner. This allows them to be on the ground right by the entrepenuers to see how they are doing and to help Kiva with anything that may come about. There is also a program for volunteers to work with a partnering microfinance institution called Kiva fellows. This allows people to get a first hand look at the impact of microcredit in the lives of the borrowers. Kiva holds extensive training sessions and sends many people abroad all year. Moreover, I thought it was exciting and fun how people can write about the people that they have lended to in the past and add any comments they want to entrepenuers' profiles. Kiva is an extremely innovative and unique way of providing debt for microfinance institutions. It is incredibly easy to use and get involved. I also think it is more engaging because the individual lenders can choose which person will get their loans. I believe that there needs to be more person to person interaction so that the lenders can get a sense of involvement. I think it would also help if people saw the actual results from the loans that they have given. I believe that eventually Kiva will work toward that goal. All in all, Kiva is a different kind of microfinance organization. They are basically the middle men between lenders and borrowers. They are not actually a regular microfinance institution. I think this an interesting position to be in and I believe there needs to be more initiatives like this one. Please check out Kiva and get involved.