April 23, 2009 | Read Time: 1 minute
Kiva.org, the popular Web site that enables people to give small loans to entrepreneurs overseas, is attracting more and more donors despite the recession, its co-founder said today.
Matt Flannery told an audience at the Global Philanthropy Forum that traffic to the site, and the number of loans being provided, has doubled since late last year. People now lend, on average, a total of $1-million per week through the site, and this week alone the site brought in $2-million.
That said, people who give through Kiva.org are contributing smaller amounts. But the drop in the size of loans hasn’t been large enough to offset the big jump in users, Mr. Flannery said.
“If you’re innovative on the Internet, you can get a larger piece of a shrinking pie,” he said.
He also described how enthused entrepreneurs overseas have been by Kiva’s recent announcement that it will enable borrowers in the United States to participate in the site.
“For the first time you see someone in Africa on a level playing field as someone in the U.S.,” he said. “That really excites people in Africa because they feel they’re becoming part of a truly global community where the barriers between benefactor and recipient are really breaking down.”
Mr. Flannery encouraged donors at the conference to help identify and support new ways to use technology to drum up and channel more philanthropy.
