Kiva

Kiva's mission is to connect people, through lending, for the sake of alleviating poverty. Kiva is the world's first person-to-person microlending website, enabling individuals to lend directly to an entrepreneur in the developing world.

Kiva partners with microfinance institutions that vet and approve loan applications from low-income entrepreneurs. Approved loans are posted to the Kiva website for funding. Internet users choose an entrepreneur they would like to lend to, and select the amount they would like to contribute to the loan, starting at $25.

As repayments are made, each lender receives an email notifying them of the progress of the loan, and journal updates are posted blog-style to the loan profile by the field partner. When the loan has been repaid, the lenders receive their loan amount credited to their Kiva account, which they can then withdraw or reloan to another entrepreneur.


Building Kiva and a Consulting Career

Erick Hong traveled throughout Southeast Asia, helping to identify microfinance organizations in developing countries able to work with Kiva in identifying deserving entrepreneurs. Tamara Sanderson created strategies for recruiting Kiva Fellows, the field volunteers who assist the microfinance institutions in Kiva’s network, and translators, who help the entrepreneurs tell their stories (read Tamara's bio, article, and blog).

Both Erick and Tamara have had the chance to serve Kiva through Oliver Wyman's Non-Profit Fellowship Program. The firm formed a strategic alliance with Kiva.org in 2008, dedicating members of our consulting staff to support the organization's growth. To date, 10 Oliver Wyman consultants have worked at the groundbreaking micro-lending website.

The firm's non-profit fellows have had a impact on the organization, says Premal Shah, president of Kiva and a former Oliver Wyman consultant: “The stream of talent from Oliver Wyman has simply brought down the execution risk of this conceptually simple, but operationally challenging model, and I’m just very thankful to the people at Oliver Wyman for taking a bet on a new, relatively un-established non-profit.”