Kiva and Microfinance
Kiva and Microfinance and why you should know about it.
One MILLION dollars!
Sep 5th
Looky what the Kiva team did today!
Congratulations to 620 sweet and generous people!
Now… [cue Dr. Evil voice]… on to Norway!
Intercontinental Ballistic Microfinance
Sep 3rd
Check out this trippy data visualization Kiva did of more than 5 years and $200 million in microlending:
Intercontinental Ballistic Microfinance from Kiva Microfunds on Vimeo.
The Kiva team keeps breaking records — join today, and you can do a $25 loan for free!
Aug 1st
Friends of Bob Harris, the Kiva team that sprouted up around my upcoming book, is frankly blowing my mind.
Across Kiva, more than 600,000 lenders have organized themselves into nearly 20,000 teams.
At right are the fundraising results from July.
I wish I had words for how honored I am to be a small part of this group. (That's not false modesty; I didn't create the group, and I don't do much, other than just cheer all these kind people on.)
If you're not familiar with microfinance, it's a Nobel Peace Prize-winning solution to poverty that makes financial resources and education available to hundreds of millions of people.
Kiva, meanwhile, is an amazing platform that allows you to lend $25 or more to schools, clinics, farmers, craftspeople, and other mom-and-pop shops in more than 50 countries.
Does it work? I've spent much of the last two years visiting clients in diverse locales like Peru, Morocco, Bosnia, Lebanon, Rwanda, Nepal, and Cambodia. I've seen the results with my own eyes. Yes. It works. In some places, it works like gangbusters.
And if you'd like to jump in, today is a great time: Kiva is offering 4000 of these $25 loans for free to new members. They're going fast — about 20 have gone in the time it took me to write this far.
Kiva puts up the cash — you just open an account, choose a recipient whose loan you'd like to see financed, and boom — off the money goes. You can then watch as your chosen client grows their business and repays the loan. You'll get hooked, doing good this easily. Pretty soon you'll want to put a little of your own cash to work, too. (My repayment rate has been over 99 percent, so yes, you get paid back.)
The 4000 free loans to new members are zipping away — 19 more have gone since the middle of this post. Wait — 20. No, 21. Okay, I'll hit "publish." Hurry!
$700,000 and still accelerating!
Jun 25th
Congrats to Friends of Bob Harris, the Kiva lending team I nominally captain (although all I really do is cheerlead) on passing the $700,000 mark!
FoBH has also just entered Kiva's all-time top ten teams in sheer number of loans made, passing Kiva France, with a current total of over 25,000 loans to clinics, schools, and small businesses in more than 55 countries.
I look at those numbers and frankly can't quite even imagine this much generosity brewing up so quickly from so many people. I don't even know what to say about it. Awesome, wonderful, fantastic, and so on!
Onward! Team Norway, we're coming for you!
Nepalling work conditions
Jun 14th
A frequent sight on the outskirts of Kathmandu:
Such a stunningly beautiful country.
Such sweet, welcoming people.
So much poverty. So much backbreaking work.
I hope Urmila and the other great folks at BPW Patan, the microfinance bank I was here to visit, manage to do as much good as they intend to.
Their work is as much uphill as everyone else's here.
PS my new friends Claudine and Brian have recently transitioned from white-collar America to living, working, and blogging in Nepal. Their blog, The Kathmanduo, is fabulous.
Around the world in 90 days… with no baggage
Mar 5th
And here I pride myself on traveling light because I'm on my third round-the-world trip with only carry-ons… turns out that's kid stuff.
Jen and Marcus have me beaten by a mile — circling the globe for three solid months with only the clothes on their backs.
It helps that they're wearing ScotteVest clothes that are designed to hold a ton. And yes, the trip a bit of a publicity stunt for ScotteVest, but I'm all for it. It's terrific gear. I'm not being paid to say this: I've had a ScotteVest jacket for years now, and I love it. You can put more stuff in the pockets (many of which are specifically designed for iPods and similar doohickeys) more comfortably than you'd ever imagine. I wear my jacket everywhere I go for about five months a year, and some nights when I get home and unpack the pockets, I'm reminded of clowns climbing out of a Volkswagen.
Plus, Jen and Marcus are doing their "No Baggage Challenge" for my favorite charity — Kiva, which is at the center of my next book. They have a Kiva team, too — and if you've joined my team already, no reason not to join theirs, too, and toss a few loans on their stack as well. It's all about doing good for folks in the developing world anyhow. Meanwhile, you can follow this sweet young couple on their round-the-world adventure here.
I might just have to do one of these No Baggage Challenges myself one of these days…
Congrats to the 336 most generous people I know
Feb 1st
Friends of Bob Harris, the Kiva team growing out of my book project, went over the $250,000 mark this weekend!
To everyone involved, thanks! Your generosity is beyond belief.
Even more unbelievable, 13 hours into February, the team is ranked #1 Kiva-wide for the month (out of almost 17,000 teams), with more than $10,000 raised just so far today.
I really have almost nothing to do with this, other than being a bit of a cheerleader for some amazingly cool folks.
It's an honor. Truly.
Our Kiva team: $200,000 and counting!
Jan 2nd
Friends of Bob Harris, a team of 279 generous people I'm honored to nominally lead, has just passed the $200,000 mark in total funds raised.
That money has gone to help fund nearly 8,000 microloans to schools, clinics, and mom-and-pop businesses in more than 50 countries across the developing world.
If that's not specific enough, here's an example of what these loans do:
Meet Jacqueline, a mother of three in Kigali, Rwanda, who has used loans like these to grow a tiny business trading cassava and sweet potatoes into a small grocery store — thereby providing a better home, better food, and a better overall life for her beautiful children.
Jacqueline was generous and sweet in sharing her story for my book — a story typical of microfinance clients I've met on four continents so far.
Want to kick in a few bucks? You get paid back about 99 percent of the time, after all. Join us!
The real Bank of Bob – in Bhutan
Jan 1st
My friend Lisa Klink informs me that there is an actual "Bank of Bob" out there — in Bhutan.
Hoping to visit and see for myself while I'm in Asia this spring. Cool!
Our Kiva team passes $65,000 for December!
Dec 28th
Friends of Bob Harris, the team I'm honored to "captain" (which means mostly just cheer while everybody else does cool stuff) at Kiva.org, just blew past the $65,000 mark for December — and over $100,000 total in the last two months of 2010.
That money is lent – not donated — to doctors, clinics, farmers, and thousands of other deserving small enterprises in more than 50 developing countries worldwide.
This means that the 267 members (and counting) of our team get paid back about 99 percent of the time, then have the opportunity to reinvest, over and over again, while helping build economies all over the world.
It's a kick and an honor to be a part of this, and I'm loving the work of writing this book.
Congrats to Jonathon Stalls on his 3000-mile Kiva Walk!
Nov 19th
Last weekend, I was lucky enough to join Jonathon Stalls for the last two days of his cross-country walk to raise awareness and funds for Kiva.org.
Crossing the Golden Gate on a perfect morning
On Friday, I and the other taggers-along marched with him from the Golden Gate Bridge to Kiva’s office downtown, and on Saturday, a merry band of about 50 people did the Bay-to-Breakers walk to the Pacific, followed by a lap around the Presidio to reach a celebratory reception.
The Kiva baby at left is really the best looking one here
After just 20 miles total, two-thirds of one percent of Jonathon’s walk, my feet didn’t want to move for about three days. Not sure how Jonathon managed for eight solid months, but there it is, with over $400,000 raised to show for it.
Jonathon and his trusty sidekick finally reach the ocean
Congrats to Jonathon and everyone who supported his walk along the way! It was an honor to be there at the grand finale.
Jonathon, me, and Chelsa from Kiva.org
Jambo (“hello” in Swahili) from Kenya!
Oct 19th
I’m writing from Nairobi after an amazing lap around Kenya for The 1st International Bank of Bob, my upcoming book for Bloomsbury about microfinance, my own Kiva lending experience, and my personal encounters with Kiva entrepreneurs and others all over the world. (So far, my own repayment rate is vanishingly close to 100 percent — after 2029 loans, I’m down all of $31.82.)
Much of my time here was spent visiting with officers and clients of Juhudi Kilimo, a microfinance lender that focuses on Kenya’s rural population. It was a privilege to join them as we drove to small towns and villages in the countryside, meeting farmers and families whose whole lives are transformed — just by buying a cow with Juhudi’s help (and if you’re a Kiva lender investing in Juhudi’s loans, your help as well).
Mr. and Mrs. Mwangi of Murang'a show off their cool new cow
Think of a cow as a dairy farmer’s capital equipment, and you’ll see why this is so powerful: Juhudi has figured out a way for small farmers to finance a top-end hybrid cow that produces more than twice as much milk than a local cow, and for the farmers to pay off the investment in just one year — so the cow produces nothing but income for the rest of its life. In the first year, farmers get milk for the market in the morning and milk for the family in the evening — so they’re feeding the kids as well as ever while paying off the cow — but thereafter they have income to invest in their homes, their farms, and their children’s education.
Mrs. Mwangi's sister and her shy little boy
The kids were always the most fun to meet. They were almost always curious, friendly, and then playful like my own niece and nephew were at the same age.
(The lone exceptions were a few little ones who were frankly petrified at the sight of a human being with my strange skin tone. I didn’t know until this trip that there were still places in the world where this was possible, but oh yes — as one little girl who is probably still cowering under her mother’s skirt made abundantly clear.)
The most inspiring group I’ve met was this group of deaf farmers from Bureti, way out west halfway to Uganda.
The Bureti Self-Help Group for the Deaf, plus Nathan (2nd from left) and Fred (5th from right) from Juhudi, and some dude. Group chairperson Isaiah Arap Chepkulul is 4th from right.
They not only face the predictable challenges of any group of rural poor trying to pull themselves up, but they’re doing it in a society where deaf people suffer far more obstacles than they do in America. But they’ve committed themselves to supporting each other — even putting it in writing in a simple but powerful statement of purpose they’ve all signed.
The grace and welcome that flowed from these people when this total stranger showed up was more moving than I can describe.
Communicating was surprisingly easy. As deaf folks, they’re extremely skilled at making hand signals and understanding those of others, and when words were necessary, I could mumble in English, Fred from Juhudi would translate into Swahili, and one of the members with some hearing would translate this into sign language. And then the answer would come back around the same way.
But words were rarely necessary. Sitting with these sweet folks in a small wooden home, the love and mutual care they are providing each other is something I will be remember for the rest of my life. No exaggeration.
It may not seem like it, just pointing and clicking at Kiva.org, but you are sending more than a loan out into the world. For people like the Bureti group for the deaf, you are sending out love. I’ve seen it. I’ve felt it.
I hope as you read this, you feel it, too.
Maybe you’ll even join my lending team and do some good right now.
Thanks!
And my profound thanks to the good people at the Nairobi, Murang’a, and Litein offices of Juhudi Kilimo. Your kindness will stay with me for as long as I live.
Hanging with the cool kids at Juhudi Kilimo in Litein.
PS — When the Bureti group’s loan comes up on Kiva, I’ll post a heads-up, because I want them to get financed in about twenty seconds. Thirty, tops. I hope you’ll join me in supporting them.
A $25 Kiva loan to a Rwandan I hope to meet
Sep 28th
Just lent a few bucks via Kiva.org to Mary Louise Nyiranzabandora here, a mother of four who runs a shoeselling business in Kigali. She’s planning to increase her profits by expanding her stock.
Rwanda has made an amazing comeback from one of history’s worst genocides. I’ll be visiting in a couple of weeks, and I hope to try to understand (at least a little) how people can possibly move on. And I don’t know any better way to find out than to ask. I’ve already got appointments set to meet with a number of small entrepreneurs there — ordinary folks just getting on with their lives — whose stories are worth telling. I’m not sure if I’ll get to meet Ms. Nyiranzabandora herself, but whatever I learn will be in the upcoming book, but I’ll also try to share what I can here, too. Not sure if I’ll meet
This is my 1932nd loan, by the way, and the repayment rate is still over 99 percent. If you’d like to help out with a loan of your own, it takes about five minutes. Join my team!
My 1800th Kiva loan: 50,000 Ugandan shillings (about 25 bucks)
Aug 22nd
Meet Sharifa, a 19-year-old who sells vegetables and charcoal in Uganda.
Sharifa needs USh 200,000 to grow her business (a little under $100). Eventually she’d like to open a beauty salon. She learned her business skills through a program run through the microfinance place managing her loan, BRAC Uganda.
I don’t know about you, but there’s no way I can look at this young lady and not chip in $25 toward her loan via my team at Kiva.org. (You almost always get paid back, btw — the repayment rate is close to 100 percent.)
Sharifa’s is the 1800th business I’ve invested in so far via Kiva. So far, out of over $45,000 I’ve sent out, I’ve lost less than 30 bucks. And after visiting entrepreneurs on four continents so far, I’ve seen how much good this can do with my own eyes. (If you like the idea, join my team and get started right now!)
I’m hoping to visit the good folks of BRAC Uganda on the next trip for the book.
More to come!
What’s going on here: big fun with tiny loans
This blog is increasingly about The 1st International Bank of Bob, my upcoming book about microfinance for Bloomsbury.
After my round-the-world Forbes Traveler gig in '08, I plowed the cash into more than 2200 microloans in 55 countries, most via Kiva. Now I'm traveling the developing world to see the results, meet cool people, and share wild stories.
So far the book covers Bosnia, Rwanda, Morocco, Kenya, Peru, Poland, and Tanzania — and I'm only halfway through.
We'll have a speaking tour soon. A sample is to the right and there's more here. If you want me to come by, call. Thanks!
#Kiva gets $5m grant! Go Kiva!
Aug 13th
The Omidyar Network (which sounds like a Turkish ESPN but is actually a philanthropic investment firm founded by the dude behind eBay) just tossed $5million to Kiva.org.
It’s the biggest grant in Kiva’s history, and they’ll use it to further spiff up the website, hook up with more microlenders in the field, and generally do more good do-gooding more.
If you’re not up on the whole Kiva thing, the quick intro is here. And if you haven’t yet joined my lending team, we’ve made more than 2400 loans to mom-and-pop shoestring operations in more than 50 countries. Hop on board here!
USAID sets up Iraqi microfinance institution
Aug 12th
Hurray. But this is one MFI that I won’t be visiting for the book.
NY Times: More stuff ≠ happiness
Aug 10th
Nice visit with reality. But it’s no way to sell ads for luxury goods in the rest of the paper.
How cell phones = banks in the 3rd world
Aug 5th
It’s microfinance on speed-dial: from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe, check out how ordinary cell phones are transforming finance in the developing world.
And here people think the iPad is a game-changing technology.
Will a $353 million IPO help a billion people in poverty?
Aug 4th
Indian microlender SKS, whose village loans typically run $100, just blew out the doors on its IPO, anchored by Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, and other global names.
A harbinger of the world’s poorest becoming just another profit center for the world’s richest? Or an inevitable growth stage of a successful model, a natural expansion of a system that encourages self-sufficiency for the poor? Or both?
