Distributed Lending

I recently joined Kiva, a non-profit organization which “… lets you connect with and loan money to unique small businesses in the developing world.” After joining the site, you can look at a list of owners of small businesses in developing countries and choose to loan them money for a length of time. The loan lengths are generally about a year and currently you can only loan $25 at a time.

Once the loans are made, the money is distributed to a lending agency in the country the business owners originate from. The money is then distributed from these lending agencies. There are reviews of the different lending agencies, including a trust value, and how often the loans have been paid back. You are able to cross reference the trust level of the lending agency with each business owner.

Occasionally the individuals that have accepted the loans will post journals of the progress they’ve been making since receiving the loans and what they are doing with the money. Though some businesses post more often than others, it is an interesting way to stay connected with the people you’ve loaned too.

It was started by a group of people who have worked at a wide variety of different companies like Google, PayPal, and TiVo and has been operating as a non-profit since 2004. I’ve created an account at http://www.kiva.org/lender/ezkl and have made 3 $25 loans to a few different businesses in Azerbaijan, Ecuador, and Bolivia.

I hope to see more and more of these kinds of organizations springing up. I believe that if we begin to focus more on the intangible human interest accrued when people are able to support themselves and not so much on the interests in our own bank accounts, we can end a lot of unnecessary suffering.