Originally posted by quidscribis:
Or a hat rack?
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Fahim and I discussed it, and he's given me permission to work kiva.org into a future article for the magazine he's the editor for. Not the first issue, but sometime after that. Oh yeah, I love that guy!
quote:I like this better.
Originally posted by quidscribis:
Or a hat rack?
quote:I knew there was a reason I liked you, Lyrhawn.
Originally posted by Lyrhawn:
quote:I like this better.
Originally posted by quidscribis:
Or a hat rack?
This is so awesome!
quote:So it doesn't look to me like you can get any tax benefit for it.
25 If my loan defaults, can I then claim it as a tax-deductible donation?
No, because it was intended as a loan, not a donation. However you can claim it as a capital loss.
We just loaned $275 to Jose Dolores Ramos Cruz to help him expand his grocery store. He's got kids to support, his business helps the people in his area, and he seems like a good risk since he's been in business for a number of years. I'm totally chuffed at what we've done, people! You guys are awesome!
quote:
Do not doubt him, you have the possibility to help Jose Dolores and his family, and they would be sincerely thankful for your support.
They didn't have a selection for just Planet Earth, which I think is quite specific enough already.
)
You never know... quote:Clearly that would never happen unless someone got a hold of your hatrack password!
Originally posted by Tatiana:
But I don't see any reason for it to stop, really. Maybe if I get banned from hatrack?
It's seriously gorgeous. The birds love it too!
quote:Ooooo
Originally posted by Tatiana:
A bump to add my nomination for the official title of the geekiest thing ever!
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Hurry and beat the rush!
You are a good picker of borrowers.
Our lender page now shows both our borrowers. This time I chipped in 10% for kiva's operating expenses, so Premal and the guys can get by. I think what they're doing is awesome! I get all inspired and stuff about it.
We got a payment!!!
quote:The loan term stated in your link says "3-6 months". So can you reloan now or do you have to wait three months?
Note that you cannot actually withdraw or reloan these funds until after the loan term is complete.
After 6, 12, or 18 months, depending on the loan terms, we should begin to have roughly one loan paid back a month on average, and so our new contributions for the month will be added to the previous amounts so we will continue to have more and more to lend. If it gets big enough we might start having to split it up between several borrowers. That will be fun! I want to challenge jatraqueros to make that commitment, even if it's a small amount. Even if it's only $5 a month, or $10, or $15, together we can make a difference. We can make a big impact on the world. What would Ender do?
Thanks so much for that!
Would that be awesome? ![[Blushing]](graemlins/blushing.gif)
Our lender page shows them. Finally, here is a snapshot of our current portfolio.
I need a wand or something.
Thanks!
I liked your choice too, particularly since she's in Guayaquil, Ecuador, a city I adored when I visited there. I wish someone would make a HPMF map with a pin in each spot that our borrowers live. Then we could see how farflung our influence is. Does anyone know how to do that?
quote:If you have more exact address information, Frappr would probably work.
Originally posted by Tatiana:
I think we've done some good in the world.
) Good luck with your cash crunch.
One thing I like about him is that his business type and his location are both new to our portfolio, so we're diversifying. Plus we tend to loan to females more than males, and while I think that's a good thing to try to offset some of the power imbalance by gender in the third world, I don't like to exclude males altogether, since they have many worthy businesses in need of loans.
quote:We are fine...it's not the cash so much (although it made for a lean two weeks) as all the credit issues now. Right before I try to buy my home too (maybe).
Originally posted by Tatiana:
Kwea, that would be great!
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quote:We are fine...it's not the cash so much (although it made for a few lean weeks) as all the credit issues now. Right before I try to buy my home too (maybe).
Originally posted by Tatiana:
Kwea, that would be great!
Hopefully it will be straightened out soon.
code:As you can see, they're all for periods of 12 months or longer. So it will probably be at least next spring before we start getting loans paid off almost every month. Emily's Grocery, the one that we loaned $350 to, was loaned the $275 that we got paid back from our very first loan, plus $75 that we collected during the month.Nora Topeto Flea Market $125.00 $42.00 Apr 17, 2007 12 months
Laurette Abia Cassava cakes selling $100.00 $25.09 May 20, 2007 12 months
Jecinta Muthoni Kamau Jecinta Muthoni Kamau $100.00 $14.73 Jun 16, 2007 21 months
Elisa Amarilla Dominguez Emily's Grocery / Despensa Emily $350.00 $58.63 Jul 2, 2007 12 months
Arzukhanim Bayramova Cattle breeding $150.00 $0.00 Aug 17, 2007 12 months
code:It's for 18 months. Some of these might be paid off early, though.Fru Donatus Chi motor bike taxi $100.00 $600.00 Sep 2, 2007 18 months
I'm saving my little pill cups and feeding the pigeons out the window with my toast and crackers and stuff they keep bringing me that I can't eat.
Thanks.
) We loaned him $125 and gave $12.50 to kiva for their operating expenses.
You and I think alike.
)quote:Actually, at one point there were zero! They had a neat picture and a special message. I wanted to take a screen capture, it was such a beautiful page to see.
Only a few days ago there were 700 or so, last night there was one.
quote:yeah, I know. there was one available last night and it was a guy who was converting part of his house into a pool hall, and something about it just didn't sit right with me. it was the only loan available but I decided to pass on it. I don't know how much of it had to do with the nature of the business, or just the fact that the guy looked really sketchy. Then after it was gone I felt a little bad and wondered if I was being biased.
I like to pick fairly short term loans, with 4 or 5 star MFIs, and I like the business to be something important, like farming or food sales, or internet cafes, rather than cosmetics or beauty salons or off-license liquor stores, you know?
It's a five star MFI, and the loan term is 18 months. has a couple of thousand loans, but her impact is felt tremendously as she regularly participates in various projects that the kiva friends organize. She was instrumental in getting Regina her wheelchair, for instance, and routinely acts as the financial head of various projects, since she has free overseas money wiring privileges. She takes payment in kiva gift certificates, which she spends on more kiva loans to feed her addiction. quote:I'm pretty sure that age must have been a typo
Ms. Ngov Savy looks remarkably young for her age!
On the other hand, I knew a Japanese lady in her 60s who looked not much older than Ms. Savy. So who knows?
. Come to think of it, I'll probably do it from time to time just for my own enjoyment.
quote:you summed it up. What can we do?
I hate even being associated at all with any organization that promotes cockfighting in any way.
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quote:my problem isn't gambling or getting drunk, it's the chicken fighting.
I see nothing wrong with gambling or getting drunk in general.
quote:http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/07/08/BUK518KLG6.DTL&type=business
Seemed like a good idea last month when Kiva, the microfinance Web site specializing in loans to Third World entrepreneurs, opened up to Americans sinking under the waves of the Great Recession. The Pissed Off Kiva Lenders Team thinks otherwise.
The group, representing 420 registered Kiva users at last count, has risen up against the San Francisco nonprofit's "shift from making loans exclusively where the needs are greatest to where they are the least." The group's published broadsides are accompanied by compare-and-contrast thumbnails, juxtaposing an affluent-looking San Francisco graphic designer who recently got a $7,000 loan to buy computer equipment and a Peruvian peasant woman who borrowed $350 "to buy wool for knitting."
We get the point. So, apparently, do 43 percent of respondents to a Kiva-posted poll as of Wednesday afternoon. Then again, 48 percent favor the program, which started a month ago and has so far funded approximately 40 U.S. applicants. There is also a pro-U.S. countergroup, called the Kiva Happy Lenders.
quote:I don't care if a charity's evaluation and monitoring reports are on their website, as long as they are publically available in some way. And while I agree with many of thier priorities, 75% of funding or more matching a list of specific programs is not vetting cost-effectiveness, it's vetting whether or not the organization has the same priorities as Givewell does.
Does the charity publish high-quality monitoring and evaluation reports on its website? A charity meets this criteria if it freely publishes - on its website - at least one technical report that (a) discusses how the impact of a project or program was evaluated, including what information was collected and how it was collected; (b) discusses the actual impact of the project. (Why is monitoring and evaluation so important?) We seek enough evidence to be confident that a charity changed lives for the better - not simply that it carried out its activities as intended. Different programs aim for different sorts of life change, and must be assessed on different terms. We do not hold to a single universal rule for determining what "impact" we're looking for; rather, what we look for varies by program type. (For more, see, What constitutes impact?)
Does the charity stand out for program selection? A charity meets this criteria if it focuses primarily on (or publishes enough financial information to make it clear that 75% of its recent funding is devoted to) what we consider "priority programs" These programs have particularly strong evidence bases, enough to lower the burden of proof on a charity running them. (Why do we look for charities implementing proven programs?) Such programs include administering vaccinations, distributing insecticide-treated nets, and treating tuberculosis, among many others. (For more, see our full list of priority programs.)