Kiva Microfunds

Today, Weekly Charity intends to clearly lay out what we know about a commonly-used, yet also commonly misunderstood, organization ... Kiva Microfunds.

Kiva Microfunds sends money to other microfinancing organizations. Then, Kiva users can pay those microfinance organizations back on their loans, and later be repaid by said organizations. Through Kiva, people loan to people loaning to other, often poorer people in other countries.

Now, this is not inherently a bad thing. However, a common misconception Kiva users often seem to have is that they’re loaning directly to people, whereas in reality the loans have often been made already by other microfinance organizations, and users are paying those organizations back.

Kiva themselves doesn’t seem to emphasize the role of these other organizations very much (1). This makes sense from a marketing standpoint, though – people generally like the idea of helping other people more than the idea of helping companies or banks.

Weekly Charity is not directly associated with Kiva Microfunds. Given the misunderstandings surrounding it, however, we encourage that you make your own decision on whether or not you want to pay back microfinance organizations through Kiva.

Maybe this statistic will help you make one:

Charity Navigator gives Kiva: 4 out of 4 stars

Thank you for your time! Here’s a link to the Kiva Microfunds website:
https://www.kiva.org

SOURCES

(1) As shown on Kiva’s website, specifically, on the “How Kiva works” page, retrieved from “https://www.kiva.org/about/how” on Friday, June 17, 2016.