Kiva.org - ehMac.ca Team, loan money, change lives! (Ongoing) $15,375 loaned to date!
 

I've been active on Kiva.org since January, 2008. Kiva.org lets you lend money to a specific entrepreneurs in the developing world - empowering them to lift themselves out of poverty.

I've created a new ehMac Kiva Team in which I'm hoping many ehMac members will join and loan money to help change lives.

To start the group off and to really kick things into gear, I've loaned $1,250 US to about 45 different entrepreneurs. You can view their individual profiles here.

Let's see if we can hit $2000 loaned by the end of tomorrow. :)
Click here for ehMac's Kiva.org Team.

I gave it a shot, but the system seems bent on having my pay with PayPal. I tried to pay by credit card 5 times and it asks me to use PayPal instead. When I decline, it then erases my credit card info and starts over.

Paypal is helping out with Kiva.org and not charging any fees to Kiva for all transactions. They've processed a million dollars in transactions just this past week for them. That's about $25,000 in saved credit card fees for Kiva right there.

I've been using PayPal for 6 years now with no problems but if you don't use PayPal, oh well. :) (Please do not make this a thread about PayPal)

So does that mean they now only take PayPal?

Any charity that restricts payment to a single company is suspect. It is forcing its benefactors to use self benefiting policies. A true charity accepts ANY help it can get in ANY manner it is offered.

Kudos, Mayor, on this initiative. Although Kiva is not technically a charity, but a micro-lending organization, contributions to this and charitable organizations tend to peak at Christmas and fall off at this time of year.

I can understand why they'd prefer the 'no administration fee' aspect of using Paypal, because if you make a loan using VISA to pay, Kiva won't get the full loan amount, and I can imagine VISA is using their usual onerous % deduct, especially as most transactions will be fairly small. (Minimum is 1.6%, but I've seen VISA charge well into the double figures in transaction fees, especially where there are lots of transactions of low amounts.) Choosing a method which maximizes the effect of the contribution only makes sense.

In this case, it makes no sense. When I filled out my credit card payment, it actually authorized PayPal to access that credit card information. The site then informed me that I still had some money in my PayPal account and would I please use that instead. When I declined, it killed the transaction.

I think KIVA sounds like a great idea, and I am not suggesting people don't donate. I'm explaining how the transaction worked for me in case others are having the same problem. It offered me the option to pay by credit card, but really wanted only PayPal.

SINC, you should probably find out a bit more about Kiva before you give your opinion on the matter. It's not a charity per se, you are not giving money away to people, you are loaning money. The logistics are, website visitors need to provide money (As low as $25) electronically, and when the loan is repaid, that money goes back to you electronically which you can then withdraw, or re-loan to another entrepreneur. Repaying your loan back on your Visa is not logistically possible. Kiva does millions and millions of electronic money transfers. The site would not be possible without a system like Paypal who were so excited about the project, agreed to wave ALL service charges.

Kiva is not suspect at all, the program has been hailed as a genius way to micro-finance people who want to pull themselves up by their bootstraps and start a business rather than receive a simple handout. The repayment percentage is over 97%.

I will post some more informative YouTube videos that talk about Kiva.

It's all there in their Help system.

Feature on Kiva.org on TV:

+ YouTube Video

Also, see this video:

Uganda - A little goes a long way.



:)