March 20, 2008 | Read Time: 2 minutes
Featured on The Oprah Winfrey Show, in the former president Bill Clinton’s book Giving, and in dozens of prominent articles and broadcast segments, Kiva might be the “hottest nonprofit on the planet,” writes Fortune (March 3).
The organization, which connects lenders in the United States and other wealthy countries with small-business owners overseas, has earned that buzz in part because it’s more Silicon Valley start-up than charity, the magazine says.
Executives refer to Kiva as a “company.” One hundred percent of the loans that people make go to borrowers, such as Peruvian farmers or Afghan basket weavers. “And whereas charitable giving often resembles investing in a mutual fund — i.e., write a check and let the experts do their work — Kiva treats lenders the way a full-service broker services a big-money client, providing risk assessment upfront and a steady stream of postinvestment information,” Fortune says.
Kiva may be at the cutting edge of connecting donors with causes via the Internet, but it certainly has company.
DonorsChoose.org, for example, gives teachers the chance to pitch donors directly for new books and other supplies through online appeals.
While the $45-million or so that Kiva and DonorsChoose.org have delivered so far is only a tiny fraction of overall charitable giving, some established charities are taking notice.
Michael Schreiber, chief technology officer at United Way of America, says that with sites like Kiva, “instead of just helping to end homelessness, I’m helping a single guy named Bob. This is very compelling.”
He adds: “Our role is to help take these successful concepts like Kiva and try to scale to a broader set of constituents and issues.”
The article is available online.
