My Kiva.org experience

About 2 years ago at a viral marketing conference in the Bay Area, I heard a guy named Premal Shah speak about his non-profit micro-lending startup venture called Kiva.org. Kiva is a micro-lending website that enables individuals to lend money to micro-entrepreneurs in the developing world. I immediately got excited as this idea was truly groundbreaking…using the distributed power of the web to allow every day people to make micro-investments in entrepreneurs / micro businesses in the 3rd world. And Kiva was truly transparent—no mystery fees taken out of the investments…100% of amount put in went directly to my chosen cause. And I was able to follow my entrepreneur’s progress with photos, profile updates, and more.

So I invested a small sum ($50) in an entrepreneur that I thought looked interesting to see how it went. Fast forward 2 years. Yesterday, I received an email notifying me that that my investment has been repaid in full. This is the 2nd completed investment now. I haven’t “donated” a thing. However, collectively with other micro-investors around the world, we’ve supplied an entrepreneur with access to the capital they otherwise couldn’t attain to grow their small business and thrive. 100% re-payment rate via Kiva investmens so far…so I naturely re-invested my money again this morning to put my money back to work. And here’s where I’ve put it: