Why does kiva work

We believe lending alongside thousands of others is one of the most powerful and sustainable ways to create economic and social good. Lending on Kiva creates a partnership of mutual dignity and makes it easy to touch more lives with the same dollar.

Fund a loan, get repaid, fund another. You choose where to make an impact. Pushing the boundaries of a loan. When a Kiva loan enables someone to grow a business and create opportunity for themselves, it creates opportunities for others as well. That ripple effect can shape the future for a family or an entire community.

Sign in. North America. Central America. Back to Top. This beta feature is currently viewable only on desktop or tablet screens. Check back later for updates. This measure reflects the percent of its total expenses a charity spends on the programs and services it exists to deliver.

Dividing a charity's average program expenses by its average total functional expenses yields this percentage. We calculate the charity's average expenses over its three most recent fiscal years. As reported by charities on their IRS Form , this measure reflects what percent of its total budget a charity spends on overhead, administrative staff and associated costs, and organizational meetings. Dividing a charity's average administrative expenses by its average total functional expenses yields this percentage.

This measure reflects what a charity spends to raise money. Fundraising expenses can include campaign printing, publicity, mailing, and staffing and costs incurred in soliciting donations, memberships, and grants. Dividing a charity's average fundraising expenses by its average total functional expenses yields this percentage.

Part of our goal in rating the financial performance of charities is to help donors assess the financial capacity and sustainability of a charity. As do organizations in other sectors, charities must be mindful of their management of total liabilites in relation to their total assets. Dividing a charity's total liabilities by its total assets yields this percentage. To calculate a charity's fundraising efficiency, we divide its average fundraising expenses by the average total contributions it receives.

We calculate the charity's average expenses and average contributions over its three most recent fiscal years. Determines how long a charity could sustain its level of spending using its net available assets, or working capital, as reported on its most recently filed Form We include in a charity's working capital unrestricted and temporarily restricted net assets, and exclude permanently restricted net assets.

Dividing these net available assets in the most recent year by a charity's average total expenses, yields the working capital ratio. We calculate the charity's average total expenses over its three most recent fiscal years. Charity Navigator looks to confirm on the Form that the organization has these governance practices in place. A diversion of assets — any unauthorized conversion or use of the organization's assets other than for the organization's authorized purposes, including but not limited to embezzlement or theft — can seriously call into question a charity's financial integrity.

We check the charity's last two Forms to see if the charity has reported any diversion of assets. If the charity does report a diversion, then we check to see if it complied with the Form instructions by describing what happened and its corrective action. This metric will be assigned to one of the following categories:. Audited financial statements provide important information about financial accountability and accuracy.

They should be prepared by an independent accountant with oversight from an audit committee. It is not necessary that the audit committee be a separate committee. Often at smaller charities, it falls within the responsibilities of the finance committee or the executive committee. The committee provides an important oversight layer between the management of the organization, which is responsible for the financial information reported, and the independent accountant, who reviews the financials and issues an opinion based on its findings.

We check the charity's Form reporting to see if it meets this criteria. Full Credit: The charity's audited financials were prepared by an independent accountant with an audit oversight committee. Charity Navigator looks to confirm on the Form , or for some metrics on the charity's website, that the organization has these policies in place.

Donors have expressed extreme concern about the use of their personal information by charities and the desire to have this information kept confidential. The exchanging and sale of lists for telemarketing and the mass distribution of "junk mail," among other things, can be minimized if the charity assures the privacy of its donors.

Privacy policies are assigned to one of the following categories:. Yes: This charity has a written donor privacy policy published on its website, which states unambiguously that 1 it will not share or sell a donor's personal information with anyone else, nor send donor mailings on behalf of other organizations or 2 it will only share or sell personal information once the donor has given the charity specific permission to do so. The privacy policy must be specific to donor information.

A general website policy which references "visitor" or "user" personal information will not suffice. A policy that refers to donor information collected on the website is also not sufficient as the policy must be comprehensive and applicable to both online and offline donors.

The existence of a privacy policy of any type does not prohibit the charity itself from contacting the donor for informational, educational, or solicitation purposes. Charity Navigator looks to confirm on the Form , or for some metrics on the charity's website, that the organization makes this information easily accessible. This chart displays the trend of revenue and expenses over the past several years for this organization, as reported on their IRS Form Presented here are this organizations key compensated staff members as identified by our analysts.

This compensation data includes salary, cash bonuses and expense accounts and is displayed exactly how it is reported to the IRS.

The amounts do not include nontaxable benefits, deferred compensation, or other amounts not reported on W In some cases, these amounts may include compensation from related organizations. Read the IRS policies for compensation reporting. Organization which receives a substantial part of its support from a governmental unit or the general public b 1 A vi BMF foundation code: Independent - the organization is an independent organization or an independent auxiliary i.

BMF affiliation code: 3. The Form is a document that nonprofit organizations file with the IRS annually. We leverage finance and accountability data from it to form Encompass ratings. Click here to view this organization's Forms on the IRS website if any are available. This score estimates the actual impact a nonprofit has on the lives of those it serves, and determines whether it is making good use of donor resources to achieve that impact.

Note: The absence of a score does not indicate a positive or negative assessment, it only indicates that we have not yet evaluated the organization. Do you work at Kiva? Note: The absence of a score does not indicate a positive or negative assessment, it only indicates that the organization has not yet submitted data for evaluation.

This score provides an assessment of the organization's engagement with the constituents it serves, a practice we term Constituent Feedback. When organizations listen to constituents, they are able to better deliver on programs and meet the needs of stakeholders.

A future version of this Beacon will also assess an organization's people operations and its Diversity, Equity and Inclusion DEI metrics. Nonprofit organizations are encouraged to fill out the How We Listen section of their Candid profile. Constituent Feedback and Listening Practice data are not available for this organization. Charity Navigator believes nonprofit organizations that engage in inclusive practices, such as collecting feedback from the people and communities they serve, may be more effective.

We award every nonprofit that completes the Candid survey full credit for this Beacon, in recognition of their willingness to publicly share this information with the nonprofit and philanthropic communities. Although the data is not evaluated for quality at this time, future iterations of this Beacon will include third party or other data that will serve to validate the information provided by the nonprofit.

Our partnership with Feedback Labs and Guidestar by Candid , and other partners including Fund for Shared Insight, GlobalGiving, and Keystone Accountability, enables us to launch the first version of this beacon with Constituent Feedback information collected on Candid's site.

Feedback practices have been shown to support better Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion outcomes, an essential area of assessment that we intend to further expand and develop in the future. We know it can be hard to see some loans miss their funding goals, which is why we've expanded the funding options and are working hard to reach new lenders who can help create more positive impact.

How do repayments get back to lenders? The partner then repays Kiva and repayments are deposited into your individual Kiva lender account. Lenders should be aware that this introduces a layer of risk: repayment of Field Partner loans relies on the borrower repaying the Field Partner, and the Field Partner repaying Kiva. For direct loans, borrowers use PayPal to transmit repayments and Kiva deposits repaid funds into your individual Kiva lender account.

Lenders should be aware that this model introduces a different kind of risk: there is no Field Partner working on the ground to follow up with the borrower and encourage or collect repayments. If a borrower is behind on paying back a loan, the Field Partner or Kiva in the case of a direct loan may try to reschedule repayments on the delinquent loan in order to make it possible for the borrower to eventually repay.

This is common practice in microlending. When a Kiva loan defaults, we notify all contributing lenders by email and these lenders can consider the remaining amount outstanding as a loss. Sign in. North America. Central America. South America. Eastern Europe. Middle East. Saved searches. Checkout 0. The browser version you are using is not supported by Kiva. Please use the most recent version of these supported browsers for Kiva to function properly. The journey of a Kiva loan. A borrower applies for a loan Kiva loans are facilitated through two models, partner and direct , that enable us to reach the greatest number of people around the world.

Loan disbursal period Loan disbursal period Disbursal refers to when the borrower can access the money— the timing of this can vary. The loan is posted to Kiva for lenders to support Depending on the type of loan, a Field Partner or borrower uploads the loan details into the system. Fundraising complete! Lenders use repayments to fund new loans, donate or withdraw the money. Frequently asked questions Do I need to fund the entire loan?

Will I get repaid? Who can get a Kiva loan? What are Field Partners? Learn more in the help center. Start lending! Choose a borrower.