Kiva Corporate Donations (instead of gifts)

[Guest]

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[emme]

We decided not to send Christmas cards and gifts to our business customers this year, and instead donated the money to Kiva and sent out an email telling everyone what we had done on their behalf.  It worked really, really well.  The feedback we're getting has been phenomenal and many people are interested in finding out more.

An additional benefit is that we were able to send it out to many more people than we would have sent gifts to.  Overall, we emailed several thousand people in Australia & Asia and I'm hoping we've converted a few into Kiva givers!  Obviously this is good for us as well - it gives our customers and people we're associated with a good idea of the values and ideals we hold dear.

Please steal our idea!   You could do this for friends and family as well as customers and suppliers.

Here's the Christmas email we sent - http://emarketing.clearlightdigital.com/em/mail/view.php?id=738917556&k=16c3b05

And here's the page where we're promoting Kiva on our website - http://www.clearlightdigital.com/about/kiva.html

[AccountAbility]

Please steal our idea!   You could do this for friends and family as well as customers and suppliers.

Welcome to Kiva Friends.  I have seen you in the lenders on some loans.  Actually we stole your idea last Christmas.   

We are following up this year with a status report and a Kiva calendar.  Of course, we probably have a lot fewer clients than you do.

Dan

[wind5001]

emme,

welcome to KivaFRiends...the mailing out to thousands of clients is a great idea and I thank you for posting and - even more - for DOING it. I'm anxious to see what's gonna happen to Kiva over Christmas...

[KivanSteven]

Are GC purchases immediately included in the total loan amount?  If so, we might already be seeing the effects of Christmas on Kiva.

[wind5001]

Steve,

I think we've been wondering about that before...and did not reach common ground...mere speculation...

[Diane R]

I am thinking the GC amount may not count in the loan total, since if the GC is not redeemed within a year it turns into a contribution to Kiva.org's operating expenses.  If it were in the loan total, they would then have to subtract those amounts from the loan total, and I am guessing they do not do this.  Just a morning thought...  (AND a hope, since my guess on when Kiva reaches 20 million in loans depends on GCs being added into the total right after Christmas!  )

--Diane.

[wind5001]

(AND a hope, since my guess on when Kiva reaches 20 million in loans depends on GCs being added into the total right after Christmas!  )

--Diane.

Similar here, Diane...