In its first year, Kiva, one of the world’s first person-to-person micro-lending enterprises, distributed more than $500,000 to entrepreneurs. In the five years since Kiva’s inception, more than 500,000 people have loaned over $165 million.
How does Kiva successfully empower so many to give back?
They know the power of a story.
Kiva’s founders and staff are committed to sharing stories that earn respect instead of evoking pity. “When I see a picture of a woman on our site and it shows all the information about her, I begin to call her an entrepreneur,” says founder Jessica Jackley. “She’s not just a nameless face. She lives in a particular place. She has a business name. She has a nickname, Lizzie, and she needs $900. She has plans and a story.”
From the founding of Kiva, Jackley’s goal was to engage people by making them feel a positive emotional connection. She wanted to offer an alternative to what her generation had seen growing up—ads to alleviate poverty where “the message was to feel bad for these people and then to act.” Kiva’s engagement strategy has never been to make you feel bad about the money you just spent on a double latte, which if you were a good person, you would instead have used to feed a starving child in the developing world. Instead, Kiva strikes a fine balance between sharing compelling information and overwhelming potential lenders with too much information.
So register on Kiva.org and start reading about all of the wonderful people whose dreams you can bring to life. Or, if you’re in the market for holiday gifts, send a friend a Kiva Card and give the power to change lives.