--- title: "Empowering Women – Models That Work: Kiva" description: Kiva has built a business with a mission to connect people through alternative lending models as a means to alleviate poverty, and they work! image: http://www.imalia.com.au/hubfs/Blog%20Images/Imalia_Financial%20and%20Insurance%20Services%20for%20Women_Blog_Empowering%20Women_Kiva.jpg --- # [Our Voice Education and Empowerment for Women](https://www.imalia.com.au/our-voice) ## [Empowering Women – Models That Work: Kiva](https://www.imalia.com.au/our-voice/empowering-women-models-that-work-kiva) 20-Jul-2017 10:00:00 / by [Carole-Anne Priest](https://www.imalia.com.au/our-voice/author/carole-anne-priest) ![Imalia_Financial and Insurance Services for Women_Blog_Empowering Women_Kiva.jpg](http://www.imalia.com.au/hubfs/Blog%20Images/Imalia_Financial%20and%20Insurance%20Services%20for%20Women_Blog_Empowering%20Women_Kiva.jpg) According to the 2016 [Taking on Inequality](http://www.worldbank.org/en/publication/poverty-and-shared-prosperity) Report by the World Bank Group, the most recent estimates indicate that 10.7 percent of the world’s population lived on less than US$1.90 a day, compared to 12.4 percent in 2012. Whilst that number is thankfully trending downwards, (down from 35 percent in 1990), 10 percent of 7 billion is still an enormous number of people living from hand to mouth. Many of those individuals are women and children. Thankfully, there are organisations like [Kiva](https://www.kiva.org/), that have built businesses with a mission to connect people through alternative lending models as a means to alleviate poverty. ###### **Kiva’s Mission** Kiva created a business model and built an infrastructure that connects lenders to borrowers which supports those borrowers to create a better future for themselves, their families and their communities. ###### **KIVA’S BUSINESS IS A LENDING BUSINESS, NOT A DONATION DISTRIBUTOR** Kiva understands that lending, rather than donations, creates a partnership of mutual dignity and makes it easy to touch more lives with the same dollar. Kiva believes that lending is one of the most powerful and sustainable ways to create economic and social good. ###### **THE LENDER CHOOSES THE IMPACT THEIR FUNDS MAKE: WHERE AND TO WHOM** Kiva’s business model creates the opportunity to play a special part in someone else's story. At Kiva, loans aren’t just about money—they’re a way to create connection and relationships. You can lend to friends in your community, or to people halfway around the world. ###### **KIVA DISRUPTS THE DEFINITION OF A LOAN** Kiva started as a pioneer in crowdfunding in 2005, and is constantly innovating to meet people’s diverse lending needs. Kiva constantly works to offer microfinance with more flexible terms. They work to support community-wide projects that help to lower costs to borrowers. Their flexible business model enables Kiva to test and change their operations to better meets the needs of both their borrowers and lenders. ###### **HELPING ONE TO HELP MANY** A Kiva loan will enable an individual to grow a business and create opportunity for both themselves, their families and their wider communities. The butterfly effect can thus shape the future for a family or an entire community. ###### **ANYONE CAN BECOME A LENDER** By lending as little as $25 on Kiva, anyone can help a borrower start or grow a business, go to school, access clean energy or realise their human potential. For some borrowers Kiva’s loans are sometimes a matter of survival, for others it becomes the fuel for a life-long ambition. ###### **KIVA’S BUSINESS MODEL** 100% of your loans go to borrowers. Kiva never takes a fee from lenders, which means 100% of the funds you lend on Kiva go to supporting borrowers’ loans. They also do not charge any interest or fees to borrowers or our Field Partners working on the ground in more than 80 countries. *“Neither Kiva nor Kiva lenders make any money from the loans they facilitate. Because of this, Kiva is able to partner with groups based on social motive, rather than profit motive.” Kiva's President Premal Shah* Kiva also focuses on creating opportunities for lenders to make a difference across a range of social performance areas which they have identified as crucial to breaking the cycle of poverty. - Anti-Poverty Focus: The work of most microfinance institutions helps to combat poverty, but these Field Partners do even more. - Vulnerable Group Focus: These Field Partners provide financial services to people from especially vulnerable and socially marginalized populations and groups. - Client Voice: These Field Partners use feedback from the people they serve and adapt their business practices and product offerings to meet their needs. - Family and Community Empowerment: These Field Partners offer support services that address the needs of their clients’ families: their health, education, and/or well-being. - Entrepreneurial Support: These Field Partners offer training and support to help people start, manage and grow their businesses. - Facilitation of Savings: These Field Partners specifically promote savings as a practice to the people they serve. - Innovation: These Field Partners embrace technology and innovation to better address the needs of the people they serve. ###### **KIVA BY THE NUMBERS** If you look at Kiva’s statistics since inception, it’s clear that their business model is not only sustainable, but it works. It works exceptionally well. Just like the results of Grameen Bank’s innovative business model that provides finance to some of the world’s poorest women, Kiva’s results have had a positive, global impact in a way that fall well and truly outside the standard operating procedures of major financial institutions.Kiva’s numbers since inception offer a heart-warming reminder of what IS possible when individuals and organisations dare to innovate and operate differently. - Number of Borrowers: 2.4 million. - Numbers of countries where loans are offered: 83. - Number of Lenders: 1.6 million. - Loans funded through Kiva: $966.3 million. - Load repayment rate: 97%. - Number of volunteers involved in running Kiva: 450. - Number of Kiva borrowers who are women: 82% - A Kiva loan is funded every: 2 minutes. - Number of field partners and trustees: 6,180. - Number of employees: 110. - Loans funded through Kiva: 1,192,132. - Farmers supported: 565,695. - Borrowers supported in least developed countries: 794,173. - Borrowers supported in conflict zones: 227,370. - Borrowers gained access to clean energy: 84,000. - Education loans: 30,799. Kiva’s business illustrates, in word and action, that even the most simple concept has the power to transform the lives of many people. It is important for all of us to think outside the square we live in and look for opportunities to use our gifts, talents, wealth, time and energy to contribute to creating structures that benefit the many instead of favouring the few. Kiva’s work is an inspiring example of how to do just that. --- **If you are inspired and would like to join the revolutionary movement that Imalia is creating, you can request to join our Facebook group [The Wolfpack](https://www.facebook.com/groups/1229868330461529/), to share ideas and learn from other like-minded women.** --- [![Join The Wolfpack](https://hubspot-no-cache-ap1-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/cta/default/2619461/7be7f531-e68c-46db-be61-caa3b3864321.png)](https://hubspot-cta-redirect-ap1-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/cta/redirect/2619461/7be7f531-e68c-46db-be61-caa3b3864321)  - [**](https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?original_referer=https://www.imalia.com.au/our-voice/empowering-women-models-that-work-kiva&url=https://www.imalia.com.au/our-voice/empowering-women-models-that-work-kiva&source=tweetbutton&text=Empowering%20Women%20–%20Models%20That%20Work:%20Kiva) - [**](http://www.facebook.com/share.php?u=https://www.imalia.com.au/our-voice/empowering-women-models-that-work-kiva) - [**](http://www.linkedin.com/shareArticle?mini=true&url=https://www.imalia.com.au/our-voice/empowering-women-models-that-work-kiva) - [**](mailto:?subject=Check%20out%20https://www.imalia.com.au/our-voice/empowering-women-models-that-work-kiva%20&body=Check%20out%20https://www.imalia.com.au/our-voice/empowering-women-models-that-work-kiva) Topics: [Women](https://www.imalia.com.au/our-voice/topic/women), [Empowering Women](https://www.imalia.com.au/our-voice/topic/empowering-women), [Kiva](https://www.imalia.com.au/our-voice/topic/kiva) - The information on this website does not take into account your personal financial situation, needs or objectives. 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