organise a team to fund 43 microloans through Kiva.org

Most of you may be aware already, as Kiva.org is sending out a special newsletter, but it’s always good to be redundant :)

Kiva’s entry “Loans that change lives” has just been voted one of the Top 25 in the American Express Members Project online competition. Only the Top 5 projects by popular vote will move on to the final round to compete for a $1.5 million First Prize. We need your help between now and September 29th to get as many votes as possible!

What can you do to help?

1. American Express cardmembers, vote here

2. Not a cardmember? Spread the word to help us get out the vote.

With your support, Kiva can turn a $1.5 million First Prize into $30 Million dollars in loans to 60,000 entrepreneurs around the world.

Thanks for your help!
Matt Flannery
Co-Founder & CEO

I don’t know if everyone has gotten this email yet, but…

Kiva will now let you loan out money that you’ve lent as soon as people repay you. I had $500+ in Kiva credit to re-lend. Definitely do it as soon as you can. I chose a few people who had had trouble getting their loans fulfilled, mostly groups of people who were looking for large loans. Take a look at your lending page today and see if you have anything to lend out. If you’ve made more than one loan, you probably have something… You can also take the money and donate it directly to Kiva.

when I have the money, it either is earmarked for someone else (usually it’s their money) or I’m broke. This is what happens when you work every now and then and not regularly!

I should sell stuff on ebay or something.

jkd

I now have 15 going and one that has been paid back. Almost half of those are from the money that my friend gve me for working on her blog. Kiva makes it really easy to find people in need…

Like Des, I’m debating doing 43 microloans, although I may wait until I get closer to that goal before I take it on.

I got a notice that one of my loans from two weeks ago was disbursed, so I went to the site to check on my loans. Of course, then I ran across a couple of people in need of loans who I really liked, so I picked up another two loans.

Even though I’m trying to be mindful of my budget right now, this is something I don’t mind spending my money on, because I figure in most cases I’ll get the money back eventually. It’s an affordable kind of charity. Eventually I would like to add the goal fund 43 microloans through kiva.org, but it’s so far away that I’ll wait a while to add it. I only have 8 loans right now.

I decided I wanted to make another loan, to “diversify” my portfolio – I wanted to add a new country and make at least one loan to a male, out of principle. I found two potential entrepreneurs and couldn’t decided between them, so I funded them both: Julio and Francis. It seems that loans to men get funded more slowly, so please consider checking them out if you’re looking for someone to finance.

I funded two more loans today, a quick one to a man in Mexico and a slow one to a woman in Kenya…

Irina and Ludmila are paying their loan back!

I’m so glad for them!

Just can’t stop… I made another loan to Lolofa Kerisimasi
in Samoa. She weaves mats and sells them. It said she can weave 10 fine mats per day. Wow! That is one productive woman.

I made a loan to Samadhon Ibragimov because his story was so unusual… He’s a dentist in Tajikistan who raises cattle on the side. His wife no longer works, and she and the kids take care of the cows while he’s at work. In the West, a dentist would be solidly middle class and be eligible for a bank loan.