What an awe-inspiring holiday season we had here at Kiva — and it was all thanks to you, the heartbeat of the Kiva community! We want to highlight and share the global impact you’ve made over the past month.
First of all, we had a record-breaking Giving Tuesday on December 3! We’re so humbled by how many individuals chose to give. The generous contributions of 20,000 individual people will go towards a number of impactful places:
- Enabling our fellows, employees, and field partners to conduct due diligence and reach borrowers in 80+ countries. Since 100% of the money you give to loans goes to the field, your donations make a massive impact on our organization as a whole!
- Continuing Kiva Protocol, an innovative new initiative in Sierra Leone giving unbanked people digital identification and secure control over their own credit information. This is a revolutionary systems-level change, addressing underlying causes of financial exclusion in Sierra Leone and across the world.
- Producing new platform technology to make lending (and applying for loans!) easier than ever. This includes new auto-lending services and a new Kiva mobile app!
- Building and maintaining the complex technical infrastructure that facilitates over $1 million in loans each week.
… And so much more. You can find out more about where your donations go here.
We also started Kiva’s first-ever 12 Days of Lending!
For twelve days, we had special matched loans to encourage portfolio diversity and ensure every borrower on our site gets a chance to have their loan funded. Many of our lenders also received early app access and Kiva credits, thanks to our partners Deutsche Bank and Bank of America.
Each day was such an incredible success. On Day 4, we ran out of loans for students within the first few hours of the day because of how quick the community was to lend!
That’s right: every single student borrower on our site had their dream funded.
Additionally, over 16,000 Kiva Cards were purchased by lenders around the world this holiday season. These cards are a great way to introduce friends and family to Kiva lending, and we’re so grateful to all who have helped spread the word through holiday gifting.
Finally, we ended the year with more donations from the Kiva community. Kiva lenders blew us away, giving us the vital funds we needed to continue the work that we do.
Haven’t donated this holiday season? Find out 5 reasons to donate here.
Thank you to our lenders, team leaders, volunteers, partners, generous donors and so many others for their support this holiday season. Across the world, hundreds of our borrowers have received loans to fulfill their dreams and support their goals. From single mothers in Peru, to fish farmers in Ghana, to students in the Philippines — hardworking individuals in dozens of countries were recognized for their ambition and entrepreneurial spirit.
Thank you, Kiva community. It’s time to celebrate the new year knowing you made a difference.
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