The 2021 Kiva Games

In this moment of friendly global rivalry, we kicked off our first-ever Kiva Games competition. Lending teams and solo lenders from around the world went head-to-head, rallying teammates and supporting borrowers near and far. 

Every loan you made contributed to global unity, support and celebration. Your lending aids economic growth for people around the world. And who doesn’t love some...

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June 25, 2021

At any given moment, Kiva’s website hosts thousands of borrower profiles and loan requests from all corners of the globe. As a result, many of these profiles require translation and editing before they can be made visible to the public. This is where the Review and Translation Program (RTP) steps in.

RTP is composed of hundreds of volunteers that review, translate and edit loans on a daily basis in order to see them fundraise on the Kiva site. These individuals typically review at least...

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Today at Kiva we're recognizing and commemorating Juneteenth, the end of formal slavery in the United States. As an organization committed to creating opportunity for underserved communities, we recognize our responsibility in learning about the historic barriers to personal and financial freedom for communities we serve, on a national and international level.

Tomorrow, Juneteenth, 6/19, is a reminder of how far we still have to go in removing systemic barriers for the Black community.

We invite you to join us in celebrating...

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As you’re reading this, almost 80 million people are displaced from their homes and/or their homeland. They have been forced to leave everything and everyone they know, forced to rebuild their lives under the most improbable of circumstances.

Refugees are entrepreneurs, educators, doctors, engineers, artists, parents, neighbors, friends. Lending to refugees is no different than lending to a small business owner in your own local community, and it’s easy to do with Kiva. While traditional banks have deemed lending to refugees far too risky, the Kiva community has lent over...

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This Sunday, June 20, marks World Refugee Day.

What can you do to honor World Refugee Day with Kiva?

1. Support refugees in your community and around the world by lending.
2. Mark your calendar for Sunday, when we're matching refugee loans dollar-for-dollar!
3. Read refugee stories, like Nimo’s (below).

Nimo embodies the spirit of the Kiva community, with an unbreakable resilience on her journey from Somalia to Kenya — and a fierce...

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Kiva is the easiest way to make a difference: simply lend to a cause you care about, then watch your dollars do good and get recycled.

So if Kiva is all about lending, why do we need your donations?

First up, donations cover the cost of lending.

When you make a $25 loan, every single cent goes to the field. The thing is, for every $25 loan, there’s a cost of around $3 that Kiva needs to cover.

Secondly, Kiva's innovative projects aren't possible without your donations....

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“We have to take the baton when it is passed to us, and run as hard and fast as we can, and then pass it on to someone else.”
 

Dear Kiva community,

As we enter the spring of 2021, I am struck by how quickly the year is progressing. With the rollout of COVID-19 vaccines in the United States, I am personally excited to gather again with family and friends,...

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April 14, 2021

The following is a transcript of an interview with Kiva Coordinators Nargiza Rajabova and Fazilat Beknazarova, who are currently based in Tajikistan and work with Micro Deposit Organization (MDO) Humo. Some of the responses have been edited for clarity and brevity.
 

Tell us a bit about yourself and how you ended up in your current role within Humo.

Nargiza Rajabova: I have been...

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The Asian American community is under attack. The horrific events in Atlanta on Tuesday underscore rising violence driven by racism, misogyny, and white supremacy. 

In the Bay Area, where Kiva was founded, and where much of our team is based, there have been 700 separate reported incidents of acts of anti-Asian hate and discrimination in the last year alone.  As a local and global organization, we also acknowledge the presence and patterns of discrimination and violence involving race and gender across the world, often present in the communities where we seek to make an... Continue Reading >>

Kiki Bryant’s lending journey is an all-too-familiar tale. Like many U.S. borrowers, she was hesitant to apply for a small business loan and felt she was unqualified.

“I, like a lot of Black female creators and entrepreneurs, have a little bit of imposter syndrome,” said Kiki. “So, when I was approved, I was overjoyed. And then when I got funded in a frickin’ hour? I was like… woah.”

Kiki was born and raised on the South Side of Chicago. A creative soul from a young age, she wrote and illustrated her first...

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Throughout 2020, two things became clear to us at Kiva:

2020 Results and Learnings: Our work in the U.S. is more critical than ever. Few organizations can make scalable, small-dollar loans at zero interest, zero-fee.

2021 Path Forward: We require hundreds more national and regional partnerships to deliver on the scale needed to end financial exclusion here at home.

 

 

2020 Results

...

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We went into 2020 with a great plan—the chessboard was laid out, and we knew our next 30 moves. Then COVID-19 hit, and every piece on the chessboard moved. With your unwavering support, we were able to pivot our plans to make a difference in this new reality.

• We quickly ramped up our U.S. lending program – extending credit limits, offering grace periods, and increasing the maximum loan amount. Kiva loans to U.S. small businesses grew by 80% in 2020. 
• Then we launched...

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