Can i make money lending to kiva

It works this way: Kiva posts pictures and stories of people needing loans. You give your money to Kiva. Kiva sends it to a microlender. The lender makes the loan to a person you choose.

Kiva Lending Team: Ways Your Kid$ Can Make Money | Kiva

He or she ordinarily repays. You get your money back with no interest. It's like eBay for microcredit.

I originally posted the quote above as a response to a diary about a project that one diarist had or at least he thought he had funded through Kiva. The Kiva story is complex and in some cases quite mysterious. The Next Billion site has recently published a more in depth look at Kiva The Kiva Fairytale: It's a microlending superstar - but who is it really serving? A few of the highlights follow below. Today Kiva brings in over 17 million a year in revenue and support.

It is backed by celebrities, it is high profile, and it is best known for the way it appears to bring individual stories to potential lenders and make them feel good about being able to contribute directly to a project they want to support. But does it actually work? Is poverty being reduced through the work of Kiva? Not according to any of the research.

I am not down on charity. I actually work with an organization trying to help reduce poverty through financial inclusion not a competitor to Kiva in any way. But I also think that organization like Kiva may be doing much more harm than good and potential donors ought to be at least aware of the realities of how the organization works, where the money actually goes and how much the overhead takes off the top.

We want to believe in the dream of Kiva. We want it to be real so badly so we can feel good about donating and helping that poor farmer.

Forbidden

But a dream is really all it is. Full original article here: It is worth examining, not only Kiva but the whole microcredit and development aid landscape. Kiva proves two things to me.

First that there is a huge demand from those with the means to find a way to help others. That should give us hope. And second, that without strong regulations, consumer protection guarantees and financial literacy efforts, organizations like Kiva will continue to abuse that hope to separate us from our money. A nice response from the author of the piece to some of the points rasied. I think it sums up the issues very nicely: However, the first step towards regulation is knowledge and transparency.

If Kiva's users are aware of these facts and accept them, then perhaps it is okay broader criticisms of the effectiveness of microfinance notwithstanding. But they are often ignorant of the subtleties behind Kiva's model.

If you look at the comments posted by some users they often have little idea what they are actually doing. They have no idea of the interest rates, because Kiva doesn't publish them. We need to ensure first that those who use Kiva are INFORMED, and ideally that the regulator is also.

Site content may be used for any purpose without explicit permission unless otherwise specified. Help Join the mailing list. Send a letter to Republican senators and stop Mitch McConnell from forcing Trumpcare! Mitch McConnell is fast-tracking Trumpcare through the Senate and we need to act now! McConnell is invoking Rule 14, Sign the petition to the Special Counsel: Former FBI head Robert Mueller has been appointed special counsel to investigate Russia's collusion with the Trump campaign Investigate Jeff Sessions for violating his recusal.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions promised to recuse himself on all Justice Department investigations that relate in any way to Blog Stream Groups Following Profile. The joys of pretending to help the poor: You knew that, right? Despite many years of trying, independent academics have been unable to find any convincing data confirming an overall positive impact on poverty reduction achieved by indebting the poor….

With interest rates often exceeding percent , it is not hard to see how microcredit can progressively increase rather than decrease poverty, as demonstrated poignantly by crises in Andhra Pradesh and elsewhere The bolded part of that excerpt may come as a shock to some Kiva supporters. Kiva is non-profit and doesn't charge interest right?

Well yes and no.

qyzofolawory.web.fc2.com

Kiva itself doesn't charge interest, but they also are not the ones making any of the loans. Kiva cleverly chooses to reveal out-of date portfolio yields instead of actual interest rates on loans, conveniently and consistently under-estimating the real cost to the poor….

Well OK, but at least those making the loans have the ability to choose the project they want to fund through Kiva right? Maybe it costs more, but only funded projects are moving ahead, so there is no waste, right?

Kiva is not efficient. And the loans you make to them are not for what you think. Typical specialized microfinance [are] 6 or 7 times more efficient than Kiva in getting money from investor to poor person. The loans featured on the website were made months before, and Kiva users are essentially buying them from the banks.

Oh, but it gets better. Kiva doesn't appear to even be able to move its donations well, with a reported 80 million in donor funds sitting in Kiva bank accounts doing nothing but gaining interest for Kiva. And yet the banks themselves report default rates substantially higher than Kiva.

Either Kiva miraculously manages to weed out all the non-performing clients better than the bank itself can, or the bank is covering loan losses itself to ensure a steady flow of interest-free capital. The bolded mine should give potential lenders plenty to think about.

There is much more in the story and I encourage you to review it at Next Billion. Kiva plays an important role in undermining the wider global struggle against poverty, deprivation and inequality. Kiva is a scam, and if we are to contribute to the welfare of the poor and restore any faith in the integrity of the U. Time to wake up.

Essentially Kiva falls between the cracks: So, I think we have to start by formally incorporating regulations, and then monitoring to see whether the likes of Kiva are able to comply.

I suspect they would struggle, if the regulations are remotely meaningful. Kiva has responded to the post at Next Billion. It is a well written response, but I think it glosses over or ignores many of the most important questions. The responses to this from the original poster are there as well. Thanks again everyone for the great discussion.

Comment Settings Close Settings Auto refresh Collapse on load Show hidden Show until I hide. Comments are closed on this story. Back to Story Show Parent Thread. Email me when someone replies to my comment.

Comments are closing in: Rules of the Road.