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giblfiz

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2 reviews

Review for Kiva, San Francisco, CA, USA

Rating: 5 stars  

I'm a former employee of Kiva, and worked for them for about 4 years full time before moving on. I have an intricate knowledge of both the microfinance industry and kiva in particular.
I have also personally made more than 3000 loans through the website, and have visited borrowers personally in the field.

I want to start by clearly saying that kiva is one of the most effective and dramatically successful non-profits I have ever seen. The amount of good done per dollar, and the number of lives touched is absolutely incredible.

I have also read some other negative reviews on this site from people who seem to be confused about some details about how kiva works, and there are three things I would like to help clarify.

1) People seem concerned that kiva has an operating budget north of 10 million a year. (This is what they are talking about in the "990"
It appears that they DON'T understand where that operating budget comes from. When you make a loan on kiva 100% of the money you loan goes to the person you loaned it to, and when they pay it back 100% of the money comes back to you (which you can withdraw I might add) Kiva's operating budget is made up of two sources: 1) There is an optional "tip" button attached to loans. It suggests a tip of 15% on the loan. In general about 5% of lenders make that tip. The tip money goes towards the operating budget, not to borrowers. The second source is direct donations from high net worth individuals and organizations, which they have earmarked directly for operating expenses.

2) People seem to be realizing that many of the folks getting loans through kiva still end up paying very high interest rates on those loans. (NOT to Kiva, but to 3rd party intermediaries)
This is true, real, and something of an obsession for the kiva employees and organization. In many of the places where organizations are making micro-loans the interest rates are, well, astronomical. In areas like these, kiva will work with a micro-loan partner that is already charging well below average rates in their area (usually a non-profit), and help them bring those rates even lower. This is often STILL a very high rate by standards in the financially developed west. The realities of infrastructure in many of these areas end up forcing interest rates much higher.

3) As is so often the case, people seem to be confusing money they lend on kiva, for money that they have given away. The money you lend _comes back_, and can be withdrawn back into your own bank account through paypal. This is really powerful because it means that you can put the money you are saving to work helping the world. I personally kept about 20% of my life savings loaned out on kiva for years (this is how I was able to make 3000 loans) and I feel it was one of the best "investment" choices I ever made.

I hope that these details help clear up some of the concerns I see floating around on the site here.

Role:  Professional with expertise in this field
 

Review for Defending Rights & Dissent , Washington, DC, USA

Rating: 5 stars  

DRaD is an absolutely amazing organization. I have seen few others that do as much with their resources, and particularly in the urgent times we are moving into, with freedom of speech and freedom of expression being threatened from every side, I can think of no organization that I would rather support.
DRaD effectively fights Police Militarization, Entrapment, Surveillance, and Lack of Accountability in our government. It serves as part of the non-profit nervous system that keeps activist organizations working together synergistically, and it helps mobilize and inform concerned citizens.

I liked this organization so much, I joined the board!

Role:  Board Member