Social Entrepreneurship

Kiva
Author: Baron, David P.
Source: Stanford University
Year: 2008
Company Name: Kiva
Number of pages: 4

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Abstract:

After hearing a talk by Muhammad Yunis, a Bangladeshi economist, about an innovative program to provide loans to beggars, Jessica Jackley Flannery became convinced that microfinance "was the coolest thing in the world." In 2004 she and her husband, Matt Flannery, went to Africa and began discussing how they could contribute to microfinance. In October 2005 they ran a pilot Internet trial with eight Ugandan entrepreneurs. The couple sent an email to people on their wedding guest list announcing the opportunity to lend-over the weekend all eight entrepreneurs were fully funded. The duo also sent out a press release that was posted on Daily Kos, and $10,000 was raised in one day. The first person-to-person micro-lending organization had been born. This case describes Kiva's operations and introduces the challenges that the organization faced as it pondered growth.