Product Description
Kiva provides micro-loans directly or through partners to enable low income individuals access to capital that they would not otherwise have.
Kiva is a 501(c)3 U.S. nonprofit
Distributors / Implementing Organizations
- Kiva - Field Partners
Manufacturing/Building Method
Intellectural Property Type
Other
User Provision Model
Borrower's can sign up directly on Kiva's site or through field partners in their local region. Lender's can find a project or borrower and sign up on the Kiva site.
Distributions to Date Status
From their impact page: - 2.9 million borrowers - 1.7 million lenders
Design Specifications
Kiva attempts to be very transparent. They have a detailed page on the loan process as well as their financials. Their technology platform is a combination of open source and licensed software. Siftery has detailed information about the technology they utilize. They publish detailed information on their API and how to integrate it into your application. Kiva labs attempts solve global issues by funding risky ideas to tackle issues that are impacting undeserved populations.
Technical Support
Technical support is provided by Kiva.
Replacement Components
N/A
Lifecycle
N/A
Manufacturer Specified Performance Parameters
From Kiva's about page: "Kiva is an international nonprofit, founded in 2005 and based in San Francisco, with a mission to connect people through lending to alleviate poverty. We celebrate and support people looking to create a better future for themselves, their families and their communities."
Vetted Performance Status
From Kiva's impact page: - $1 billion dollars in loans - 2.5 million borrowers - 1.6 million lenders - 84 countries - 81% of borrowers are women
Safety
Not applicable
Complementary Technical Systems
Statistical analysis software (Stata, R, etc.)
Academic Research and References
- Gajjala V, Gajjala R, Birzescu A, Anarbaeva S. Microfinance in online space: a visual analysis of kiva.org. Development in Practice. 2011;21(6):880–893.
- Choo J, Lee C, Lee D, Zha H, Park H. Understanding and promoting micro-finance activities in Kiva.org. Proceedings of the 7th ACM international conference on Web search and data mining – WSDM 14. 2014.
- Liu Y, Chen R, Chen Y, Mei Q, Salib S. “I loan because…”. Proceedings of the fifth ACM international conference on Web search and data mining – WSDM 12. 2012.
- Hartley SE. Kiva.org: Crowd-Sourced Microfinance and Cooperation in Group Lending. SSRN Electronic Journal. 2010.
- Megan Moodie, Microfinance and the Gender of Risk: The Case of Kiva.org, Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 38, no. 2 (Winter 2013): 279-302.
- Schwittay AF. Making Poverty Into A Financial Problem: From Global Poverty Lines To Kiva.org. Journal of International Development. 2013;26(4):508–519.
Compliance with regulations
According to their Terms of Service and Privacy Policy, Kiva is in compliance with all local laws and regulations.
Other Information
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