Amazing things achieved by Kiva members in 2011

Kiva.org has always been great at their communication and transparency with their members so it was a great pleasure to receive an email from Matt Flannery (just like every other member did) that so succinctly summarises what this innovative organisation achieved in 20111.

Matt delivers a powerful message and so I have repeated here:

Together we did some amazing things in 2011, and I’m proud to share a few highlights with you.Kiva lenders funded over $80 million in loans in 2011, and passed a quarter billion dollars funded since inception. We added partners and borrowers in Yemen,Zimbabwe, Turkey, and Burkina Faso, bringing Kiva’s network to 146 partners in 61 countries. We brought Kiva to entrepreneurs in two of the US’s hardest hit cities– New Orleans and Detroit– with more cities to come in 2012.This has been a year of innovation at Kiva. We began working with non-traditional partners whose business models are a bit different from the standard microfinance institution, enabling them to provide a unique set of services and technologies to their clients. An example is One Acre Fund who provides seeds and other inputs to farmers cheaply by buying them off-cycle and in bulk. We’ve developed social performance badges for loan and partner webpages, so that lenders can understand how a partner helps borrowers socially, in addition to financially. Looking at 2012, I’m very excited for what we’ve got planned. We’ll be adding new countries, including India. We’ll be offering more higher education, clean energy, water & sanitation, mobile & ICT, health, and innovative agriculture loans. There’s even more that we’re not quite ready to announce, so keep an eye out! Happy holidays to you and yours from all of us at Kiva, and we hope you have a wonderful New Year. Sincerely, Matt Flannery Founder & CEO, Kiva.org

You are invited to check out the Kiva Team Malta and consider if you wish to be a part of something truly amazing.