Tamara Sanderson: Kiva.org
I’m Tamara Sanderson, and in 2008-09 I spent four months as head of marketing and recruitment for Kiva's volunteer Fellows and Translation Programs. I had always planned on taking an Oliver Wyman Non-Profit Fellowship (NPF) since joining our Dallas office two and a half years ago. The company gives you time off to serve a non-profit and pays you a stipend when you return to work. Kiva is changing lives in the developing world, and I was excited to be able to play a part.
This summer Tamara is participating in Kiva's Fellows Program (KF8) working with XacBank in Mongolia. To read more about Tamara's experience in Mongolia and her thoughts on microlending, visit Kiva.org.
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The question is, if Kiva grows 10 times the size over the next 5 years, how can it scale its volunteer Translation Program without substantially increasing its costs?
The people at Kiva are phenomenal. Hanging out with them was one of the best things about being there. It was inspiring to get to know the founders – Matt Flannery, Fionia Ramsey, and Jeremy Frazao – and hear about why they started Kiva and their passion for their work. They’re a dynamic, unique group of people.
What most people don’t know is that Kiva is very small, with only 30 to 35 full-time employees. Last year, I’d say they had about 10 volunteers at any one time, half being from Oliver Wyman. So we definitely have had an impact on the team dynamics, in a good way.
Read the article, An Ultimate Good >
Changing Lives One Loan at a Time
I have had a difficult time putting my impression of Kiva into words. Phrases like “great” and “amazing” seem superficial, yet so many words miss the essence of Kiva. At our town hall meeting with the board of directors on Friday, I think I finally found an accurate way to describe Kiva.
In typical Kiva fashion – while sitting on couches and eating pizza – Alex, a member of the board, recalled the scene in Schindler’s List where Stern tells Schindler, “This list is an absolute good. This list is life.”
Similarly, Kiva is an absolute good from both a macro and a micro perspective, having an impact on everyone it touches. By empowering the borrowers, connecting the lenders to the goal of alleviating poverty, and energizing its volunteers, it has created a paradigm shift in the way people view and exercise social entrepreneurship.
