Kiva: Changing Lives Since 2005

Today, we wanted to pay tribute to the absolutely amazing work that Kiva has done during the past 3+ years. Kiva, Swahili for unity or agreement was founded by Matt and Jessica Flannery in November 2005 and quickly became the world’ leading micro-lending website. During this short period of time, Kiva has literally changed the lives of thousands of poor entrepreneurs in developing countries and mobilized almost half a million lenders to make a difference.

Check out the numbers below:

• $67+ million in loans
• 98% repayment rate
• 471,000+ Kiva lenders
• 95,000+ entrepreneurs funded
• 3.92 average loans per lender
• A loan was made every 31 seconds on kiva.org in 2008

You probably noticed that the average number of loans per Kiva lender is 3.92 , meaning most Kiva lenders so believe in the impact of their action, they are choosing to re-lend over and over again. Awesome.

If you have never lent money on Kiva and are looking to make a difference in the world of social entrepreneurship (and changing the lives of the 4 billion who live on less than $2 per day!), we encourage you to consider making a small loan. You get your money back and you know you’ve made a difference.

• Person-to-person micro-lending website, empowering individuals to lend directly to unique entrepreneurs around the globe
• Organization Type: Other
• Website: www.kiva.org
• Founder(s):Matt and Jessica Flannery
• Founded:2005
• Location:California, United States
• See complete company list here