Kiva Partners With Accion To Microlend In The U.S.

October 25th, 2010

Poor entrepreneurs are everywhere, so why limit U.S.-based microfinance operations to overseas customers?

Kiva.org, an online nonprofit that helps anyone make microloans to foreign businesses via local institutions, is expanding its scope to include entrepreneurs in the United States.
Through a partnership with Accion Texas-Louisiana, Kiva will start to offer microloans to new and existing business owners in those states. Kiva’s model is a kind of “crowdfunding,” which allows lots of small donors to make a big impact.
Microfinance helps poor entrepreneurs get access to loans. These individuals are usually seen as too risky for traditional bank loans, so microloans can greatly increase their chances of success.

Accion is the third U.S. microfinance institution Kiva has partnered with since October 2009.
Less than 1% of the borrowers featured on Kiva’s website are based in the U.S.
The average U.S. microloan is about $7,000.

“Awareness of microfinance is really low here.” – Premal Shah, President of Kiva