Kiva Community

[Dendro Dave]

I have considered getting involved in this, but I'm curious do you actually make interest back on the loan? I don't remember being able to find that info on the kiva site, but maybe I just missed it. I mean I'm not really looking to make any money doing this, but just a little made back on interest would be nice to off set the rare default.

I think if I get involved most of my money would be going to some animal/environmental related projects or to women since in most places these loans go, women are often at more of a disadvantage then men. Especially in such places where religion and/or culture may limit possibilities even for those who disagree with to some extent or do not hold to those particular values, but are still subject to the religious/cultural pressures regardless. The idea of that bothers me

[JoshK]

No interest is earned by us or Kiva, but that is fine by me. Also, you can read through all the info and make a judgment call to prevent defaults. Some of the borrowers have repaid before, some of the lenders have never reported a defaulted loan to Kiva.

If you're worried about it, I just wouldn't loan any more than you could live with loosing. For me, the good this is doing for people all over the world far outweighs the risk of loosing a little money. Plus, this is far less risky than loaning money to family!

[NathanB]

You need to be careful and research the lending company, some of them keep over 50% of the loan

[Dendro Dave]

Originally Posted by bussardnr

You need to be careful and research the lending company, some of them keep over 50% of the loan

I got no problem with not actually making any money off of it, and just doing it to help, though I think If investors saw at least a small return even of just 1% on each loan, the cumulative effect that would have on more money being loaned and thus more good being done would be good....but I do have a problem with loan companies keeping 50%. It seems like an organization like this is doing itself and the people it serves a disservice by allowing companies like that to participate. I understand the companies need to make some money but that just seems excessive to me. There are lots of ways to help people or animals where 80-90%+ of your money goes to the actual cause and not in someones pocket.

[NathanB]

Heres a 3 page article about it. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/14/wo...rofinance.html
kiva is good about it but sometimes one might slip through

[housevibe7]

Impact of Dendroboard
Statistic Name Dendroboard
Number of Team Members 19
Number of Loans 100
Number of Loans per Member 5.3
Total Amount Loaned $2,725

[NathanB]

limited time free trial, lets get some life back into this thing.

http://track.kiva.org/y.z?l=http%3A%...=268961491&t=h

[NathanB]

Impact of Dendroboard

Statistic Name Graph Total Impact
Number of Team Members 19
Number of Loans 116
Number of Loans per Member 6.1
Total Amount Loaned $3,150

Its been over a year since anyone new joined. Might as well take this off sticky

[srrrio]

It does not take up to much space..what the heck you never know... It was cool of you to bump it though

Sally

[jacobi]

Is anybody still doing this? I'm interested, as long as the money is going to individuals. How does it work? I'm getting mixed messages from the little online research I've done, some articles are praising the concept, others claim it as simply a way for banks to make money off of peoples donations.