Kiva Aids Its Millionth Borrower

Sophea Chum and her husband received a $600 loan financed by Kiva lenders to buy materials for their silk-weaving business in Cambodia. Sophea Chum and her husband received a $600 loan financed by Kiva lenders to buy materials for their silk-weaving business in Cambodia.

March 24, 2013 | Read Time: 1 minute

Since the organization’s founding in 2005, people in more than 65 countries have made $400-million in small loans. The total amount loaned in the organization’s first year was almost $500,000. Today Kiva lenders make more than $1.5-million in loans each week.

Traditionally the charity has worked with nonprofit microfinance institutions that administer the loans to people who want to start or expand a small business. But increasingly the organization is working with new partners to expand the range of loans it offers, such as loans to go to school, build a house, or buy clean energy products.

For more information: Go to kiva.org.

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About the Author

NICOLE WALLACE

Features Editor

Nicole Wallace is features editor of the Chronicle of Philanthropy. She has written about innovation in the nonprofit world, charities’ use of data to improve their work and to boost fundraising, advanced technologies for social good, and hybrid efforts at the intersection of the nonprofit and for-profit sectors, such as social enterprise and impact investing.Nicole spearheaded the Chronicle’s coverage of Hurricane Katrina recovery efforts on the Gulf Coast and reported from India on the role of philanthropy in rebuilding after the South Asian tsunami. She started at the Chronicle in 1996 as an editorial assistant compiling The Nonprofit Handbook.Before joining the Chronicle, Nicole worked at the Association of Farmworker Opportunity Programs and served in the inaugural class of the AmeriCorps National Civilian Community Corps.A native of Columbia, Pa., she holds a bachelor’s degree in foreign service from Georgetown University.