I stumbled across a blog today that directs a portion of all of its subscription fees to Kiva loans. Declan Fallon, through his blog 'Fallond Stock Picks', has supported 55 entrepreneurs through his site. What a great idea. Building up a loan portfolio (check it out) of that many borrowers must be incredibly satisfying for the business owner. It also gives him another reason to connect with his customers/subscribers. Go Declan! I wonder which other businesses/websites are doing something similar. I wonder who's generating the most loans through similar programs. If you know of any, let us know.
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I stumbled across a blog today that directs a portion of all of its subscription fees to Kiva loans. Declan Fallon, through his blog 'Fallond Stock Picks', has supported 55 entrepreneurs through his site. What a great idea. Building up a loan portfolio (check it out) of that many borrowers must be incredibly satisfying for the business owner. It also gives him another reason to connect with his customers/subscribers. Go Declan! I wonder which other businesses/websites are doing something similar. I wonder who's generating the most loans through similar programs. If you know of any, let us know.
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Thanks for the feedback Erick,
If you have an affiliate scheme for the card I would be happy to put a link in my sidebar. I have been somewhat suprised as to how few businesses do market themselves this way; the KIVA default rate is low (only one partial distribution from 55 loans) and if you are prepared to wait a year for your money it's as good as cash in hand. Obviously, most businesses/people would keep the money cycling within KIVA which helps build up promotion of the program.
Does your card come with KIVA approval? I don't know how KIVA look at more the commercial applications of their system. I didn't receive any feedback, good or bad when I told them what I was doing.
When a purchase is made on the card, do you allocate a portion of that payment? Or is it if you use the card on KIVA you will double the contribution up to $200? Wasn't sure on this.
As for my ideal situation, I would like offer Subscribers a single payment system that routed a quarter of their subscription to a KIVA business account (or at least $25), the other three quarters would come to the business. The KIVA business account would be a pot of money which Subscribers could vote to decide where to allocate the money too (this would need a short time frame because of the speed at which loans are allocated). Repayments would be cycled back into the pot (or a set percentage of repayments returned back to the company if the money was needed). Over time this money could grow into a substantial kitty - particularly if this was done by a sizable company. Costs to a larger company would also be less as they wouldn't need to allocate as high a proportion of their subscription revenues to KIVA.
I really think KIVA provides a great way of offering added value to commercially offered services (such as my own). The customer has the advantage of getting two for the price of one; they pay for what they came for, but can also help decide how part of their money is used to support emerging entrepeneurs. Not every customer will want to do this, but as long as you have a few prepared to manage the funds as they become available then you have a very workable system.
Best of luck,
Declan
Hey Declan,
I'm really excited that you are using Kiva in such a positive way for your business. You are a perfect example of a small business owner(hopefully one day an Advanta customer) who gives to Kiva because you care, and from that your small business directly benefits.
To answer some of your questions above...
(1)I'm not exactly sure what you mean by KIVA approval, but in short, the Advanta business card or the KivaB4B card are accepted on Kiva.org. Kiva loves all support, they don't discriminate. I'm sure they would be very excited to hear your story, my guess is that since they only a few people working and their resources are scare, they don't have a chance to answer all inquiries.
(2)Advanta matches all Kiva grants by Advanta or KivaB4B cardholders, up to $200 per account per month.
Again, I think what you are doing is great, and I urge you to keep up the good work. We need more Declan Fallons in this world!
Stu