It takes a village to raise $1 billion in loans to women

October 9, 2019

By: Channing Fisher

In October 2019, Kiva crossed the $1 BILLION dollar mark in loans to women around the world. That’s huge. That’s $1,000,000,000 deployed to almost 3 million women in 94 countries. But we couldn’t do it alone - this progress is all thanks to YOU, our incredible community. It takes a village to raise $1 billion. The Kiva village is diverse and powerful - lenders, volunteers, Field Partners, employees and corporate partners all came together to make this impact happen.

Lenders

Kiva.org at its core is a crowdfunding platform that is fueled by its lenders - 2 million of them. Since our first loan to a woman in 2005, what once took months to fund a $400 loan now takes minutes. Lenders funded $1 million in loans to women by 2014 - and 5 years later our impact has grown exponentially.

Lending teams

An example of the Lending Team leaderboard one month.

What do Christians, Atheists, nerds, guys holding fish, the US, Canada and Europe all have in common? A commitment to uplift their global neighbors on Kiva.org. It’s a testament to the universality of Kiva’s mission that Christians and Atheists are neck-and-neck for the highest team lending volume. Learn more or join a team here.

Corporate partners

Kiva's co-founder Premal Shah networking with partners.

A lesser-known fact about Kiva is that we’re supported by a diverse set of corporations and foundations. From discounted services and free software, to grants, financial backing and lending accounts, Kiva is grateful for each partner that helps us achieve our mission. Want to learn more? Check out our Partnerships page.

Field Partners

Staff of Kiva's Field Partner in Honduras, ODEF.

The too-often-unsung heroes of Kiva’s model are our Field Partners. We work with more than 330 local organizations that are intimately familiar with their communities. They’re the experts that connect Kiva funding to the people that need it the most. Learn more here.

Employees

There are more than 100 Kiva employees across our global offices in San Francisco, Portland, Chicago, New York, Bangkok and Sierra Leone. They're the ones behind the scenes making everyone's experience run smoothly - from our engineers building our website so you can continue to make loans to the marketing team that delivers the story of your impact to your inboxes every day. It's a great team, and if you're interested in joining us, click here.

Borrowers

Lastly, and most importantly, our amazing borrowers are the ones who put in the work every day to step up and change their own lives. Our 3.3 million borrowers are strong, entrepreneurial, innovative, deeply caring, motivated and brave. We just lend them the capital to let them achieve their dreams. Read about our rockstar borrowers here.

One billion is huge, but we’re not stopping here - we’re just getting started! Let’s #FuelHerFuture together and continue to uplift each other in big and little ways every day. Make a loan here.