Re: Kiva.org - Xmas gift suggestion for ballas
 

Kiva staked me in the Sunday Million yesterday

Re: Kiva.org - Xmas gift suggestion for ballas
 

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Kiva staked me in the Sunday Million yesterday

[/ QUOTE ]lmao

Re: Kiva.org - Xmas gift suggestion for ballas
 

From what I've seen, it looks like you want to pay attention to the "Field Partner" and their rating. These are the local organisations that actually administer the loans "on the ground".

You can actually get a list of all loans that have been defaulted:

http://www.kiva.org/app.php?page=busines...rtBy=Popularity

Usually the "Field Partner" has a low rating in these defaults. So one or two star field partners should be considered fairly speculative. That's fine if you want to go that way, just be aware...

OTOH, you'll see five star field partners who've handled a thousand loans and never had a single default.

Re: Kiva.org - Xmas gift suggestion for ballas
 

This guy looks trustworthy, but there's just something about him that isn't quite right....




http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w...ah2179/idi.jpg

Re: Kiva.org - Xmas gift suggestion for ballas
 

This thread is the bee's knees

Re: Kiva.org - Xmas gift suggestion for ballas
 

This is definitely pretty neat. I'm wondering how it is different from www.MicroPlace.com which was just started by Ebay. Or isn't it?

Also, www.prosper.com is another one, but slightly different.

Re: Kiva.org - Xmas gift suggestion for ballas
 

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The loans aren't charity, the money gets repaid and at a rate that crushes traditional banking - Kiva.org has a 99.75% repayment rate.

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This site is awesome, but I don't see how this claim could possibly be true.

Re: Kiva.org - Xmas gift suggestion for ballas
 

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]

The loans aren't charity, the money gets repaid and at a rate that crushes traditional banking - Kiva.org has a 99.75% repayment rate.

[/ QUOTE ]

This site is awesome, but I don't see how this claim could possibly be true.

[/ QUOTE ]

Read the book "banker to the poor" by the bangladeshi guy who won the nobel prize in economics for his experiments in microlending. He started the whole thing in bangladesh and made it very community centered and stuff. His repayment was over 99% as well.

Basically, he structured it so you have to have multiple steps and blocks before you can actually get a loan. You join a community group, and get your loans one at a time. If one person fails to make decent progress toward repaying the loan, then the rest will likely never get loans, so the community pressure is intense. There are lots of community meetings and steps to take and so forth, and everyone knows exactly how everyone else behaves.

Re: Kiva.org - Xmas gift suggestion for ballas
 

Noah, I couldn't stop laughing.

So the field partners are like lone sharks?

Edited to remove picture

Re: Kiva.org - Xmas gift suggestion for ballas
 

Cool beans. I think I'll be trying this out instead of Heifer Intl. as my charity gifts this year.