June 15, 2009 | Read Time: 1 minute
With its recent decision to make small loans to fledgling businesses in America, Kiva, a San Francisco charity that traditionally has worked abroad, is assisting some unusual New York enterprises.
According to The New York Times’s City Room blog, “The requests for loans from New Yorkers come with a certain New York attitude, something not typically seen in Kiva loan requests from, say, Bangladeshi farmers,” writes Times reporter Allen Salkin.
Among the loan recipients is “Joe” from Queens, who is asking for $2,125 to help his business that makes car covers out of fake fur. As of June 15, Mr. Salkin writes that Joe has almost received half of that amount.
New York is not the only area with interesting business ventures seeking help on Kiva.org. According to a Chronicle article about Kiva’s new effort, they include Mandy’s Korner, a mobile hot-dog stand in San Jose, Calif.; a board-game store in San Francisco, started by a veteran of the Iraq war and his childhood friend; and Island You a Hand, in Burlingame, Calif., which provides home health-care assistants who speak a variety of languages.
What do you think of Kiva’s decision to create a domestic program?
