Kiva Communities
August 29, 2008 2 CommentsWe here at SeaMo spend a lot of time thinking about how we can connect the Seattle microfinance community. Fundamentally we believe that hosting an online community and real world events achieves a result greater than the sum of the parts.
Which is why I was excited to learn about Kiva’s new initiative to increase the socialization of its website.
“Kiva Communities” allows individuals to join affinity groups. At checkout the individual lender specifies which Lending Team (lenders can join multiple groups) gets credit for that particular loan. Lending teams can encompass employees in a company, students at a university, people from a given area, etc. etc. etc.
The folks at Kiva have put quite a bit of effort into creating this new feature, and will be monitoring the results closely.
If you are interested in participating, consider joining the Seattle lending team I just created.
Oh, and I’ve also just posted over at mykro.org about another improvement to the Kiva lending experience. Check it out: Kiva Makes Repaid Loan Funds Available Immediately
Events, News and Commentary
[...] you want to hear about another exciting innovation from Kiva that rolled out yesterday, check out my post over at SeaMo about Kiva Communities [...]
The social aspect of Kiva Communities is a great idea. It brings people together for a common purpose and fosters some friendly competition.
Congratulations for setting up your Seattle lending team.
I have had great success with Kiva – every microentrepreneur has paid back on time.
If you have a bit of money gaining no interest in a checking or savings account, check out MicroPlace http://microplace.com You can earn a few percent interest ~3% while supporting microfinance efforts.
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Dr. Kevin Gormley
Learning and Earning for Microfinance
http://microfinance.mylocalcause.com