A nice write up. The problem for me with Kiva is that I dislike that it's a quasi-investment bank since it consolidates capital and loans it out to the MFI's.
I'd rather do Prosper, take my chances on defaults and actually make a return and combine that with just a straight out donation to a charity, i.e. what I do right now.
Mind you, I cannot loan any money out anymore with Prosper because it's not approved to take DC lenders (but VA was).
I think the microlending model is great, but I'm not sure that access to capital markets via Kiva is the answer to developing world's problem. Has it truly created more capital access than there was before? I'd be interested in knowing about that.
Comments 1
I'd rather do Prosper, take my chances on defaults and actually make a return and combine that with just a straight out donation to a charity, i.e. what I do right now.
Mind you, I cannot loan any money out anymore with Prosper because it's not approved to take DC lenders (but VA was).
I think the microlending model is great, but I'm not sure that access to capital markets via Kiva is the answer to developing world's problem. Has it truly created more capital access than there was before? I'd be interested in knowing about that.
Reply
Leave a comment