Kiva is a nonprofit, p2p-lending site that facilitates loans between lenders and extremely low-income entrepreneurs in developing countries. Lenders can find the business and entrepreneur they want to lend to based on region, business type, risk level, etc.

Kiva is a nonprofit, p2p-lending site that facilitates loans between lenders and extremely low-income entrepreneurs in developing countries. Lenders can find the business and entrepreneur they want to lend to based on region, business type, risk level, etc. Each posted loan is accompanied with bios for the respective entrepreneur, details on the why and what the loan is going to be used for, total amount raised from other lenders, loan duration (usually 6-12 months) and loan default risk.

Taking small payments, usually $25, from a bunch of Kiva lenders raises the loans. Once a loan’s full amount has been raised it is transferred using PayPal to one of Kiva’s field partners. Field partners are local microfinance institutions (MFIs) in developing countries that find, track and manage entrepreneurs and then disburse and collect the microloans. When loans have been repaid in full they are transferred back to Kiva and then to Kiva lenders via PayPal.

PayPal has allowed Kiva to transfer loans back-and-forth from the MFIs without transaction fees partly because of Kiva’s nonprofit nature and partly because of Kiva president Premal Shah’s past job of being a Principal Product Manager at PayPal.

Kiva is alone in their business model of online p2p lending to entrepreneurs in developing countries as a nonprofit entity. Other p2p lending sites, like Prosper, Zopa and Lending Club, make lower-risk loans to people in the same country as for-profit entities. Online p2p lending is new and it is hard to maneuver around financial regulations to make higher-risk, international loans as a for-profit entity, which is partly why Kiva formed as a non-profit.

As some of you may have noticed, this week a notification was placed underneath the borrower profiles on all loans to Nicaraguan borrowers on Kiva.org. It reads, in part: In mid 2008, a movement began in Nicaragua called “Movimiento No ... According to a recent press release by Marketwire, Kiva.org, known as the first person-to-person online microfinancing website, plans to partner with Moody's Corporation to provide pro bono credit ratings of partner microfinance ... FUNKENSPRUNG Silicon Valley discovery tour 2009 – day 1: The program for today finsihed with Dave McMurtry, Director, Co-Founder, Loomia and Kiva.org. He gave us detailed insight on his 2 ventures (one business oriented, one non profit) ... I love Kiva.org so much. This is one of my favorite websites to donate to. Their mission statement is amazing and the story about how this company came into place is incredible. It is truly inspiring. Read below. ... kiva.org.org. 2009-10-07. First Kiva Team to Reach $1 Million! Congratulations!! The first Kiva Lending Team to reach $1000000 in loans is the Atheists, Agnostics, Skeptics, Freethinkers, Secular Humanists and the Non-Religious! ... kiva.org.org. 2009-10-06. Live Love Lend - Party in Boston! Come join Boston's first awareness event for Kiva on October 15, 5-9pm at Jose McIntyre's upstairs (160 Milk Street). This event is open to all Kiva lenders and anyone who is ... kiva.org.org. 2009-10-02. Moody's to bring its credit risk expertise to Kiva · Moody's Corpration, one of the world's most respected and widely utilized sources for credit ratings, research and risk analysis, announced a new partnership to ... kiva.org.org. 2009-10-02. Samoan Tsunami: A Kiva Fellow on the ground. Just last week Agnes Chu was at the Kiva HQ office in San Francisco, training to become a Kiva Fellow. After graduating from the training program, she prepared to begin ...