This is build.kiva.org, our brand-spankin’-new destination for developers wanting to build and extend the microlending platform we’ve created at Kiva. Over the next few months we plan to shape this into a hub for builders, mashers, and other creative types looking to make a difference in the world through loans to the working poor. Here you’ll find news, discussion, and documentation around the Kiva API and other tools we provide to developers. You’ll also be able to connect with other Kiva Developers, share your ideas, and keep up with activity going on in the developer community.
Moreover, this is a place where you can help us shape the Kiva API. You’ll find our API roadmap and evolving designs on our Wiki, and we expect these to change in direct response to your participation in the community. This site is yours too – let us know what needs to change and how we can make it a more powerful tool for everyone building Kiva. (If you like what you see so far, help us give thanks to our designer-friend, Omar Lee.)
We’re excited you’re here. See you in the forums and the intertoobes.
Hey all, I love it! What a really pleasant surprise! I have started poking through some of the data, and have created a preliminary network map of your borrowers and lenders. http://www.howweknowus.com/2009/02/03/kiva-micro-lending-offers-api/
Best!
Skylar, Omar, and all at Kiva,
Congrats on the launch – it’s a very cool development!
From the beginning, Kiva showed that small loans have a tremendous impact. Here’s hoping that many small hacks are equally transformative. Well done, I’m excited to see what happens next.
Best,
Nate
[...] building tools and new applications for the microfinance/microlending community. Kiva wants ‘build.kiva.org’ to become a hub for socially-minded developers who want a make a difference in the world (and [...]
This is fantastic. For myself, I know I’ve been toying around with ideas on how to started on some projects like this but unsure how to begin. This is definitely that start and can’t wait to get started. Thank you and congrats!
interesting, but you need to expose transaction capability to developers. its my understanding this isn’t possible today which means there’s no financial incentive to build applications on kiva?
This seems really cool. I already have somethings in mind.
This is a great step in the right direction. Kudos to the KIVA Team. Another feather in your already feather-filled caps. I greatly look forward to the expanded API.
Now it’s time to see what WE can do with this.
Complete(?) Kiva Network…
I wanted to offer up an image of the complete(?) network after all of the kind interest in the preliminary network map I put together yesterday.
From the feedback yesterday, I learned my lesson and have linked to a high-res version of the image.
……
recently had a conversation wit a consultant at red cross& red cresent international in chengdu china, they have a program for giving matching funds or close to what govt compensation for loss of a home, which is half of what is needed to replace there home. the quake victim can get a loan after they have replaced there home, there are no construction loans available or bridge loans available in china. so 90% of those qualified for matching funds won’t be able to get those funds. Because they can’t complete the home with out a loan. Any sugestions?
contact roland@disaster-relief-shelters.org
Many countries are using mobile phones instead of computers to access the internet. I have reserved the domain name kiva.mobi for future development of a mobile site. At this time, my own personal skills are pretty limited to wordpress with mobile themes, but if it would help please let me know and I’d be happy to set it up.
I’ve contact the CEO through the lender messages section to transfer the domain name to the Kiva organization, or I am happy to host it.
Bogus. Me and my friends have supported Kiva, but now we know that the “NGOs” that distribute OUR money are demanding fees and interest. Sounds like banks, not NGOs. We are not funding bogus NGOs so they can make profits off of OUR money. When WE loan OUR money, We expect NOTHING in return. My friends and I are going to look for a real charity that does not rape its recipients like banks, the IMF and WB do.
This is an important step and an example that I hope gathers more tranction in the non-profit sector. Kiva.org chosen not to be limited by a silo-specific definition of its mission. As important, it has chosen to do so by extending its reach across communities technologically. It would be great if Apple opened iTunes up as a micro-payments platform for non-profit organizations. It would be great if the YouTube model could be melded into a backend for a standardize platform for video documentation of socially and environmentally conscious non-profit mission. Well, short of more “change” coming soon and in amble measure, more of use and the organizations we support will need to develop the open, enterprise-class information archtecture that will be needed to heal this planet. We can do it with just the sort of strategic approach to technologic as this API bespeaks.
Glenn White
[...] in building tools and new applications for microfinance/microlending community. Kiva wants build.kiva.org’ to become a hub for socially-minded developers who want a make a difference in the world (and [...]
This was a fantastic news and something we have been hoping for. Since you launched the API last week, our team created an alerts app called KivaAlerts.com, as a way for Kiva lenders and to-be-lenders to keep track of loans that are of most interest to them. Its super quick and we hope it will help drive more lending activity as a result of bringing it to users’ attention on a regular basis right in their inbox.
I have tweeted it and shared on Facebook as well and would love to see if I could connect with you to understand the best ways to spread the message. Please let me know as soon as you get a chance.
Kevin,
You’ve raised a really good point, which is that Kiva’s Field Partners charge an interest rate to the entrepreneurs who receive Kiva Loans through them. This is a really important part of the model without which these microfinance institutions could not be sustainable.
Sustainability is a really important part of microfinance, and Kiva aims to support strong microfinance institutions that can achieve sustainability so that they aren’t forced to rely on charity to help the poor. Ideally Kiva’s Field Partners one day graduate from Kiva debt capital to other forms, perhaps bank loans which they can comfortably afford or even savings if they become registered to receive deposits.
Kiva is funded mostly by donations made by Kiva Lenders when they check out, but we don’t give lenders the option to also make a donation to the microfinance institution to cover their costs of facilitating the loan (which include conducting due diligence on the borrower, disbursing the loan and collecting repayments.) These costs are not insignificant, and without the work that the Field Partners do Kiva just would not be able to work – we don’t have people on the ground in each country in which we operate, we rely on our Field Partner staff.
So, interest charged to the entrepreneur is an important and necessary part of the sustainability of microfinance, which is one of the characteristics which make it such an attractive poverty alleviation. Can the poor pay interest? We know that they can – the repayment rate is very high, and very basic investments in a small business can, and often do, double or triple profits that entrepreneurs make.
To be clear, however, as part of Kiva’s due diligence process with any Field Partner we look into the charges they apply to each loan and we do not partner with organizations who charge an interest rate which is exorbitant, considering both the region and the product.
I hope this helped to put a little context to the issue, and explain why interest rates – and sustainability – are very important to us.
Fiona Ramsey
Kiva Public Relations Director
i am president of the sonora sunrise rotary club. my club is exploring microfinancing options as a project. with whom may i speak directly? jim
bonjours,
je suis directeur d une micofinance dans la ville de yaounde au cameroun,
je souhaite avoir des plus amples renseignemets sur les conditions de devenir field parteners.
nous avons plus de 2000 membres et le protefeuille credit de plus de 350.miilions frans cfa
personne de contact FOUEPI Martin
tel 237 77 75 96 51
email. mfouepi@yahoo.fr