As many other entrepreneurs these days, we feel that sustainable development is an integral part of being an entrepreneur. Our aim in this is to support simple but effective initiatives; in the mindset that many small intiatives can make a big impact. In that perspective, Board Of Innovation started to support women entrepreneurs in Asia and Oceania through Kiva loans – Sina Pele from Samoa, and Jocelyn Melanio from the Philippines. We wish them all the best with their plans, and invite all our readers and fellow-entrepreneurs to support entrepreneurs through Kiva as well. Also, special thanks to our business partner Christian De Neef of Fast Track to remind us about Kiva recently. When using the system, I was again surprised about the strenght of Kiva’s business model, and couldn’t resist to visualize it. The 1st flow of transactions shows how loans are given to entrepreneurs, through Kiva’s Field Partners. The Field Partners are in-country based microfinance institutions that approve and disburse loans, and then upload the loan and entrepreneur’s profile on Kiva’s platform.

Lenders like you and me can browse those entrepreneurs’ profiles and choose someone to lend to, using credit cards or PayPal. Unlike other broker platforms, Kiva doesn’t charge a fixed commission on transactions (100% of the loan goes to the entrepreneurs). Kiva lenders choose  an additional percentage that want to give to fund Kiva’s costs. The 2nd flow of transactions shows how entrepreneurs repay their loans, and what options lenders have when they get repaid.

The total value of loans made through Kiva amounts to $134,575,785 now.  Also interesting to note is that PayPal provides Kiva with free payment processing. Kiva’s is actually the first account at PayPal with a free payment processing agreement. Have you used Kiva or similar funding systems before?