Hello All,

We have just introduced user flairs to this subreddit for anyone who would like to make your membership of a certain Kiva team known on this subreddit. I'm obviously not going to create a flair for every single team, so at the minute we only have a flair for every team that was discussed in this post. However, if you see that your team isn't listed as a option, just post here and I'll add it.

When I first joined Kiva, I was aware that Teams existed, but beyond that I didn't really see much point in them. I joined the Ireland team and it put a little Irish Tricolour beside all my loans and that was good enough for me. Then after a few years I came across the Climate Pilots, and really liked that there was some discussion on the message board and it helped me find loans that I was interested in by either looking at the suggested loan list, or seeing the loans that other members were funding.

Full disclosure: I got more involved in the team and I'm now one of the Team Captains.

I think for me the big difference was going from a team based on who I was (Irish), to a team focused on a specific objective - loans that help combat climate change.

Are you a member of any teams? If so, do you actually engage in the team in anyway?

Curious about what lending percentile other Kiva lenders are at. I've been leaning in Kiva for 3 or 4 years. I'd be curious on how much i need to lead to get to a higher %.

When I look at my Lending Stats, I have 4/10 badges. There's nothing to click to see what the other six badges are called, and no explanation for some of the badges I do have.

I have two badges for contributing on International Women's Day, which makes me wonder if there's a badge for an earlier Women's Day that I'll never be able to obtain.

I also have an "Equity" badge, but there is zero information about what that means or how I obtained it.

When I Google, it talks about social performance badges, but Equity is not listed. I'm not sure those badges are the same as the badges in my profile.

What are the ten possible badges to earn? How many do you all have?

I gave a couple of hundred a few years ago and let that rotate - would lend back out as the money came back.

I'm leaning toward a monthly giving though, but setting a cap.

What do you do?

Kiva have a good page here

https://www.kiva.org/impact

What for you leaps out as a favourite? Or something neglected?

From their stats, agriculture and food are highest, but what sways you?

https://images.ctfassets.net/j0p9a6ql0rn7/4khCulYNvM8xVvDIGvFUXB/1f62c63de27082a836e515399db6412a/graphic_wafflechart_LoanSectors.svg?w=2048&h=872&fit=scale&f=center&fm=webp&q=65

As a long time Kiva user it was unfortunate to see it was restricted. I requested mod status and hey - here we are :)

My stats: https://imgur.com/a/03kwWHc

I believe that Kiva is a force for good. I am also conflicted with just how it operates.

I would like the sub to focus on the good, to highlight how we can enable others and to constructively criticise the organisation when needed.

The usual Rediquette rules apply and will be expanded as and when needed.

Abide :)

I'm sorry but it's ridiculous to think that a college educated American who needs money is anywhere near the same level of in-need as the unbanked, underserviced, forgotten percentage of the population the platform was intended to serve.

Seeing Americans get 15,000$ fully funded while someone in the Congo is getting 50$/400$ is absolutely disgusting and should be moderated.

I'm actually really angry about this.

I'd like to know how much interest and other costs the typical borrower pays on a loan from Kiva.

I was thinking about an option for the loans on Kiva where a Kiva supporter like me could prepay the borrower's interest and costs.

In this way, the interest and hard costs of the loan (or at least my proportional share of same) would still go to the lending field partner and would be a straight donation (i.e. not recoupable) from me. The principal amount of my loan would still be repaid by the end borrower as always.

In this way, the loan to the borrower would be interest free because my donation paid the borrower's interest in advance provided the borrower pays the loan back within a agreed upon time period. If not, the normal interest would start at that point to be paid by the borrower.

Just a thought to kick around. I'm sure there are many pitfalls but does anyone have input?

Anybody else been having long delays when withdrawing? ( been 4 weeks now)

I hope this is allowed here. Please delete if not allowed. I am working on funding my loan for my business Kool Joe Kustoms. Please check it out.

https://www.kiva.org/lend/2030289

Thank you.

I am new to Kiva. My friends and I started a lending team but don't know how to donate funds or fund raise. Do you have to select a borrower first and then Kiva provides the tools to raise funds? Or do you raise funds first and then select a borrower. Their site does not explain it well and we are getting frustrated. Thanks for your help!

After a long delay, I was just given mod status for this subreddit. I've been donating to Kiva for more than a decade (though my current profile doesn't show that, since I deleted by Facebook account and they can't migrate the loans).

I've just cleaned up the years of spam and mod requests and I think we can start making this place a lot better.

Open to suggestions...what would you like to see?

• Suggested loans?
• Kiva-related news?
• Payback info?
• Failed loans?
• Profiles of prolific lenders?

Related to the above, what would YOU like to get involved in?

I like to browse the countries I haven’t chosen before, and look for someone who jumps out to me. I spend a really long time scrolling through, star a handful and then read more about them.

Sometimes I search keywords that have meaning to me, but haven’t had a ton of success with that.

I would like to help in a variety of sectors, but I’m usually drawn to loans involving agriculture and access to clean water/toilets or people with medical issues.

Also, this year, everyone in my family is getting a Kiva card for their birthdays, lol.

Monthly leaderboards aren't showing, repayments haven't come in, and I've seen some stuck loans open over the last couple days with minimal amounts remaining that won't let me complete them. Any idea what's going on, is Kiva having backend issues or is this expected because staff are out?

I joined Kiva in 2013 and I only started out with a contribution of $25 (how does this work, test run, etc). Over the years I've been growing my contributions as Kiva really showed me how privileged I am (through fate really) to be born in a first world country. Reading the stories on Kiva of those people in need, I wish I could help them all. I just got my first annual report from Kiva, I didn't realize I had helped that many people in 2017. It makes me appreciate that I am in a position to help people around the world. I wish that Kiva would do follow up stories to each person, would be nice to hear exactly what helped and what didn't.

Kiva shines a light on entrepreneurs in third world countries that otherwise would not have a chance to grow or improve their lives.

I'm hoping to be able to come up with a guesstimate about how many jobs are created per $$ loans. I only lend in the US. Kiva has this quote on their website: " Small businesses create 2 out of every 3 new jobs in the U.S."

Hey team, thought you might be interested in this collection of stories from the Kiva US community. This is my story, about my friend Victor. It's a great success story, but also highlights the humanizing potential of Kiva. Enjoy!

http://us.kiva.org/stories/lender/jonny/