Kiva and FINCA

If you are interested in doing some research on your own here are some great organizations to look into; FINCA (Foundation for International Community Assistance) and Kiva World Bank. Here is a brief overview of each foundation. I will be posting a more in depth look at each later on.

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Kiva- Loans that Change Lives.

Link: http://www.kiva.org/

Kiva was founded in 2005. They allow lenders to choose to whom they donate, they are the first microloan bank to support that feature. Their website provides information about their past, and where they hope to go in the future. They also have featured lenders as well as featured entrepreneurs.

One of the best features on their site is the "Impact this Week". This is a scrolling text that states; the number of new lenders who joined the site this week. The number of entrepreneurs funded this week. The number of loans completely repaid this week. The number of hours it takes (on average) for the full amount of a loan to be acquired. And the amount of money lent each week.

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FINCA- Small Loans-Big Changes

Link- http://www.villagebanking.org/

Founded in 1985 FINCA was the first organization to support the idea that credit not charity was the best way to help the poor. FINCA is aimed at helping empower working women and their families.

There are no hidden fees taken away from the money lent, with all mailings they include a pie chart to show exactly where the money goes. 3% goes towards fundraising, 6% goes to General and Administrative, and 91% goes to Program Services, or the poor that the money is meant to go to. This breaks down to $1,488,203 going to fundraising, $3,374,861 going to General and Administrative, and $47,148,936 going to Program Services. This totals $52,012,000 annually.

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These are both worthy causes. I highly recommend exploring the sites on your own. In future posts I will go into more depth about how each of these organizations work.