Ten years ago, I joined Kiva, a platform for crowdfunding loans for the unbanked.
In those ten years, I made 500+ loans. I'd like to think I've helped 500+ people improve their life.
More than 1.5 billion people around the world are unbanked. 500 loans is still a drop in the bucket.
To celebrate my 10-year Kiva membership, I added more funds to Kiva. I plan to make at least 1,500 loans the next 10 years — 3 times the amount of my first ten years.
To be clear: I don't earn any interest from these loans and occasionally lose some or all of my principal. This is a form of charitable giving, and not a financial investment.
To maximize my impact, I automatically re-lend any principal that comes back to me. The repayment rate on my loans has been around 97%. This means my credit will be put to work for many years to come.
If you have the means, and you want to help build towards a financially inclusive world, consider joining Kiva.
PS: There are a couple of new blog posts on https://dri.es/. I just haven't emailed them to you.
