Is anyone else on Kiva? Organization TLDR: After being on my to-do list for months, I finally added some cash to Kiva.org and have been giving out microloans to small business owners in need. I've found it a really fulfilling way to give money to strangers, nice that I know exactly where it's going. I'm starting to focus on lending to Central and South Americans due to some of my travel there. This group tends to be a generous bunch, so I started a TMB team on Kiva in case anyone wanted to join up. Perhaps we could stumble onto a cause we all liked and start helping folks fill their loans faster. Here's a link to the team in case you're interested in joining up: https://www.kiva.org/invitedto/tmb/by/john23752585 Charity Navigator summary
I suppose my TLDR was pretty shitty. There's no return for me. It's a donation. These funds flow to local partner agencies that give loans (and charge interest) to the borrowers. So when my microloans get repaid, it goes back into my balance to issue more loans.
so wait we're providing capital to a company to make loans to companies who need money? do i have that right
What about interest? Most borrowers do pay interest to local lending partners to help cover their operation costs. We verify that these rates are appropriate for the region. Individual lenders don't earn interest—and 100% of money you lend goes to supporting borrowers.
There was a discussion once on this board about micro peer-to-peer building loans. I forget the company
What happens if the borrower doesn’t repay? Who is out? The micro lender? I’d guess not. They’ve passed all the risk to you and they collect operational costs (aka salaries paid to themselves) in the form of interest
Not sure "all the risk" is accurate. Some, for sure. https://www.kiva.org/about/due-diligence/risk Repayment rate stats Repayment rate for all loans: 96.4% Repayment rate for ended loans only: 97.1% Repayment rate for partner facilitated loans: 97.0% Repayment rate for direct U.S. loans: 75.4% Borrower repayment rate for all loans: 96.9% Currency exchange loss rate: 0.5%
These blueberries are so fucking tasty man. https://www.kivaconfections.com/flavor/chocolate-covered-blueberries
following table shows these loans sorted according to interest rate. Number of loans Interest rate 150,615 0% 5,570 0.5-10% 152,926 10.5-20% 387,677 20.5-30% 334,205 30.5-40% 330,354 40.5-50% 116,154 50.5-60% 51,026 60.5% + 1,653 No interest rate listed 1,530,180 Total lol at taking donations and then issuing loans with a 50% interest rate
It’s a 501c3, but I wonder how much their CEO makes. Charity Navigator rating superficially means they’re not complete frauds (or at least good at fraud) from an accounting perspective. Have no idea if their methods for vetting and selecting loan recipients is worth a shit.
it says they have 14 employees and 500+ volunteers. Doesn’t seem like there are tons of mouths to feed. I’m sure he makes a decent percent
There's always someone behind the curtain trying to get rich no matter the good intentions in this place.
And now? fwiw seems like somewhat of a grift but seems like your money goes where it’s intended and does some good.
They have a LOT of administrators, board members, etc that make very large sums of money. They waste and throw away more money than any other setting I've ever worked in. And I've worked extensively in commercial insurance IT.