Here’s something one doesn’t see every day. This morning I visited Kiva, the microloan site, to check on my loan partners — and saw the happy message that every loan request on the site has been funded! Kiva encounters this situation periodically, when their good press results in so many donors, they simply can’t find new applicants fast enough. Imagine a bank that had more money to loan than applicants — it’s a happy confluence of events.Kiva is adamant that every dollar we give goes directly to fund the entrepreneurs’ loans. They do not deduct anything for overhead or processing (even PayPal donates its services for free). This does, though, mean that Kiva processes millions of dollars for microloans but often struggles to meet its own overhead including rent and staff salaries.
Today’s mitzvah: While we wait for more loan applications to appear on the site, consider contributing $5 to Kiva for their operating expenses. A PayPal link on the front page makes it easy. (You can also contribute to Kiva operating expenses here.)
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