I’ve seen it happen a few times before, but it always makes me so happy when I go to Kiva and see that they are out of people to loan to because so many people are donating.

Another cool feature that Kiva has launched is Kiva Vision.  Kiva Vision shows you, real time, who is making loans on Kiva. Every time a loan is made, the world map moves to show you who made it and where they are.

There’s no better way to watch the whole world doing good, right now.

I love the concept of Kiva Lending Teams that enables Kiva lenders to band together to alleviate poverty — I like the functionality so much that I went ahead and created a Kiva Lending team for myKRO.org. If you are reading this blog, you are at least somewhat interested in helping to alleviate poverty through microfinance. That being the case, I want to recruit each and every one of you to our lending team, myKRO.org, on Kiva. Just as when you loan on your own, you still choose who to lend to — whether a baker in Afghanistan, a goat herder in Uganda, a farmer in Peru, a restaurateur in Cambodia, or a tailor in Iraq — and as they repay the loan, you get your money back. Once you’re a part of the team, you can choose to have a future loan on Kiva “count” towards our team’s impact. The loan is still yours, and repayments still come to you - but you can also choose to have the loan show up in our team’s collective portfolio!

This is just one small step, but if we all work together, we can help make alleviating poverty a reality. Click here to join the myKRO.org Lending Team.

Did anyone else wake up this morning to find a surprisingly large balance in their Kiva account?

One of the critiques of the Kiva P2P lending model was the delay between when a borrower repaid a loan and when the lender had access to the repaid funds for withdrawal, re-lending, or donating to Kiva. Essentially, a lender would not have access to funds until the full amount of the original loan had been repaid.

Just yesterday Kiva rolled out a new system in which lenders will have access to the loans as the payments are processed. For a more detailed description of the new system, check out Matt Flannery’s post over at SocialEdge. Why is this important? The key benefit is the increased velocity of lending. Rather than repaid funds sitting in a bank account for months, the funds are immediately available to lenders, who, I suspect in most cases, relend the money.

Oh, and if you want to hear about another exciting innovation from Kiva that rolled out yesterday, check out my post over at SeaMo about Kiva Communities .

It’s no surprise that I am a big supporter of Kiva.  One thing that I really like are the updates that they send from the individual donors that I lend to.  Recently I received an email from one of the Kiva field volunteers, Omeed Selbe, who is volunteering in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, which I thought was pretty interesting.  It gives a generalized overview of things going on in Cambodia, so  I wanted to share some of it:

Cambodia is fortunate to be making gains in healthcare, education and political transparency, though the country still has a long way to go in recovering since it was plunged into tumult by the brutal Khmer Rouge regime. I don’t believe that microfinance alone is by any means a panacea for development, here in Cambodia or anywhere else in the world. However, I have witnessed the substantial impact that microfinance has on enterprising, motivated individuals.

A well regulated microfinance sector - completing the kind of work that Kiva and HKL do - provides the financial resources necessary for upward mobility to those who would otherwise lack these resources or at least pay dearly for them (e.g., through village money lenders or informal lending circles). Many Kiva/HKL [Hattha Kaksekar Limited] Borrowers have been able to significantly improve their living conditions by expanding small businesses like grocery stalls, food stands, and personal farms to the level that would create consistent increased income.

An example of the success of a Kiva loan is Ya Fatimas of Phnom Penh City. Her loan of $1000 was used to expand her modest business of selling pumpkin cakes to local villagers and to purchase a motorcycle for her husband to use for taxi services in the city. After receiving the loan she saw a substantial increase in her household income, which enables her to pay school fees for her children without sacrificing other necessities.

HKL is a socially progressive, profit-driven organization, which I have witnessed to work extremely efficiently throughout the country. The organization operates successfully in nine provinces, and has long-term plans to expand to serve the entire country. In light of HKL’s large footprint, I’m continually impressed by the intimate geographical knowledge of the HKL distribution network. Local credit officers seem to understand so well the web of interaction between all of the inhabitants of their designated village or region, and can therefore lend adequately to clients without approving over-indebtedness. HKL has been a partner with Kiva since February 2008 and is committed to further strengthening its relationship with Kiva. Look out for new HKL clients that are continually posted on Kiva.org.

I recently visited Cambodia and was able to see first hand the effects that the Khmer Rouge political party had on the country, so it is great to hear that the country is doing better and that it’s citizens are able rise out of poverty due to microfinance.

Companies are making loans as well. Check out this profile for Vault Mortgage on Kiva with 115 loans thus far!! Seeing a company that truly understands lending (I’m assuming they understand lending since it’s their core business) giving loans to entrepreneurs around the world says a lot about the concept of microfinance. I’m not looking for a loan right now, but if I was, Vault Mortgage would certainly be a company I looked at as a result of their activity on Kiva.

Most who know me know that I’m a huge fan of Kiva. I’m still amazed that technology enables me to help entrepreneurs all over the world improve their lives for as little as $25 and a couple clicks of my mouse. I thought I’d take a moment to highlight the entrepreneurs on Kiva that I loaned to this past week.

Nozigul Sherova

Palepa Ioane

Adjo Amouzou

Anani Kpohle

Cairo 2003-c Group

Florence Asare

Mafomba Group

Bosede Ibrahim

Comite San Bernardino II Group

Mujeres Trabajadoras Group

Maribel

Comité Esperanza y Fe Group

Back in November, when I first heard about Kiva, I went to the website and I felt like I was a kid on Christmas morning. The very first time that I browsed through all of the different loans, I was so excited; I mean, where do you start? Who do you decide to give a loan to? Do you choose by country, amount, repayment period, male/female, or sector? There were so many options, I didn’t know where to start. Eventually I decided to donate to Dilrabo Toshoeva of J.Rasulov, Tajikistan.

I really liked her story, so I decide to loan to her, and that is where my journey began.

A few days ago I logged into my account and found that Dilrabo had repaid all of her loan. I was ecstatic. Even though I don’t know Dilrabo, I felt really proud to be a part of her success.

In addition to being linked to Dilrabo, I really enjoyed being a part of her lender community. It was really interesting to be able to see all the names and faces of the other people who were going through the same experience with Dilrabo as me. I found myself constantly clicking on other peoples profiles to see what other people they were lending to. It got me wondering, will I see these people in other lender communities? There are a lot of entrepeneurs on Kiva, but I found that most people give multiple loans, not just one. It’s sort of like an addiction, you feel so good about yourself, you just what to keep lending. Additionally, I found that lending is like the gift that keeps on giving. Once you loan once, you most likely will not take your money and leave. When one loan is up, I get to start the exciting process all over.

If you haven’t had a chance to look at Kiva, I suggest you give it a try. Even if you don’t end up lending to anybody, just browsing through the Kiva community and field partners is a great experience. It’s great to see how many people are out there making a difference.

This is very cool — a billboard for Kiva (paid for by Paypal)!

I read about the KivaB4B Program the other night and marveled at what an amazing initiative it was. What is the program?

Advanta empowers its cardholders (well over one million) to ‘double the impact’ of their Kiva loans. Anytime a lender uses their Advanta credit card (or the new KivaB4B card) to make a grant, Advanta will match it - dollar for dollar - up to $200 per month per account. Additionally, for every card that Kiva activates, the organization also receives $100 from Advanta. That helps keep the lights on.

This is a win for everyone. Advanta is seen as socially responsible and will likely increase new accounts. Kiva gets additional funding to help cover overhead expenses. Lenders on Kiva with Advanta credit cards have extra money to loan to entrepreneurs all over the world.

It doesn’t get much better than that.