Kiva Blog

Mar 20, 2013 Kiva HQ KV
Watch President Bill Clinton launch Kiva City Little Rock! By Camille Ricketts
Here at Kiva, we were honored and thrilled last week to have President Bill Clinton launch our newest Kiva City program in Little Rock, Arkansas!

Hundreds gathered at William J. Clinton Presidential Center and Park to celebrate the launch of Kiva City Little Rock -- including many of the small business owners raising loans on Kiva! 

Partnering with Visa and microfinance organization Accion Texas, Kiva is now offering $25 loans in the Little Rock Area -- giving lenders everywhere the chance to empower a small business and help create employment in a state where local enterprise provides half of all jobs!

Watch President Clinton introduce the program here:



Make a loan in Little Rock today and do your part for economic recovery. It all starts at kiva.org/littlerock.

Big thanks to the Clinton Global Initiative and the Clinton Foundation for help making this possible!

Tags: 
kiva
kiva microfunds
loans
microfinance
lending
Little Rock
Arkansas
president clinton
Bill Clinton
clinton
Kiva City
kiva city little rock
Kiva Zip
small business
job creation
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Comments

First and foremost, I appreciate you people for up lifting small business people with loans that can make their lives better in future. I think in future it will also be accessible to some of us who have that need. A person like me, Iam in need of it seriously to boom my small business that is farming section and later alone a loan for building house to live in because per now Iam renting and sometimes it is difficult when it comes to the paying the landlord. thanks. Hopping to here from you anytime.
Submitted by kayemba Moses on Thu, 03/21/2013 - 04:59

Kayemba,
If you are interested in participating, visit https://zip.kiva.org/borrow for more information.
Submitted by Kevin O'Brien on Thu, 03/21/2013 - 13:22

Fantastic that we're able to support local communities as well as communities worldwide. Just a side note/question: I know Bill Clinton earns some of the highest speaking fees, averaging around $500,000 per speech. I hope that wasn't funded by Kiva or loans from Accion Texas! Tell me he did this for free!
Submitted by Jason on Thu, 04/25/2013 - 16:04

I was wondering the same thing. I have worked with small celebs before, and they get paid to do this kind of thing, or at the very, very least, all their expenses are paid for, or reimbursed for and then some, instead of calling it a direct "payment for speaking". And I think or hope his fee is closer to the 250K range , but usually when they get that kind of money, they are speaking for an hour or more. He is more likely involved as a board member to one of the financial institutions that backs Kiva, and made an appearance for expenses only and hopefully because he genuinely cares.
Submitted by Stephen Schwanebeck on Thu, 04/25/2013 - 19:41

I'm pretty positive there was no fee for Bill's appearance. As you may have noticed, he was speaking at the Clinton Library, and he already needed to be on location due to a fundraiser happening the next day. He already has an apartment in the Clinton library, so there'd be very little in terms of expenses required for him.
Submitted by admin on Fri, 04/26/2013 - 15:44

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About the Author
Camille Ricketts Camille brings her passion for storytelling to Kiva, where she helps create and curate online content. A longtime journalist, she started her career reporting on arts and culture for the Wall Street Journal in London and New York. In 2008, she joined San Francisco-based blog VentureBeat, writing about  green technology, policy and finance. Most recently, she worked in public relations for electric vehicle maker Tesla Motors. Outside of work, Camille volunteers as a web designer for maternal health nonprofit Saving Mothers. She holds a B.A. in women's history from Stanford University, where she also served as editor in chief of The Stanford Daily.

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