Does Kiva.org itself need some funding?

[Guest]

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[emme]

I know this is may be the stupidest question ever asked, but nonetheless ... I'm going to ask it

Given the tremendous interest in Kiva and what I assume is some mad scrabbling to assess new MFI's and get loans onto the site, would it be worthwhile formulating a strategy that encourages people to donate to Kiva itself?  I know the holding page that displays when no new loans are available does already address this in a small part, but perhaps it would be a good idea to help Kiva to grow quickly to capitalise on the fantastic press and interest that is around at the moment.

It would be great to get some idea from a Kiva insider on what is needed/wanted in terms of either cash or goods & services.  It might mean sharing some of the detail around operating costs, but I'm sure that with all the goodwill that is out there for Kiva, people would want to give to an organisation that is all about giving itself.

Will more staff, more resources, more money going into the Kiva coffers allow us to help more people in need of loans? 

[cpbailey]

Emme,

I am not sure how up to date this is, but here is a link with the job openings.  It would probably be a couple months to get training and have someone ready to go negotiate with potential partners.  This process can take awhile--depending on if it is a new country and other stuff.

Ramping up this much is a huge effort!  Money wouldn't hurt, for sure.  I suspect there are other issues as well.

Kiva...what would help???

1.  Money
2.  Referring people for jobs
3.  Translators (which languages?)
4.  Volunteers for data entry or other administrative work in San Francisco
5.  Tweaking policies such as raising some of the maximum dollar per month
6.  Volunteers to work at a partner's site getting loans input or updated
7.  Other

Colette

[Diane R]

I am less than an hour's drive from San Francisco and would be happy to volunteer some evenings/weekends to do data entry or whatever in the Kiva offices, if they could use me.

--Diane.

[DanaLi]

Also kiva has a wishlist on amazon.com. I think it is just made up of cameras and rechargable batteries/charging thing(what do you call that?) for the cameras. I assume these are to help the MFIs. Also if you do get these things off of amazon there is a link somewhere that gives a % of your bill to Kiva. Does anyone know where that link is? You could probably find it if you went to the shopping for kiva section.

[DanaLi]

Found it, here is the link:

http://www.amazon.com/?&tag=kivafrie-20

[Joe]

That amazon affiliate link is actually a Kiva Friends project. We use it to fund group loans here. See the thread about it in the Shopping section.

You can keep track of how much Kiva gets in straight donations at the following link:

http://www.kivafriends.org/stats/

That feed has total and previous day donation totals.

I'm thinking about putting up some sort of volunteer database where people can register what they can do. Kiva can tap into it, if needed, for various projects. I've got a lot of people volunteering to do all sorts of stuff through here, the social networks like MySpace, Second Life. They're up to help with all sorts of things such as graphic design, web design, coding, translations, etc, etc. Probably wise to start organizing them a little more.

[wind5001]

Joe,

I think that's a great idea...I noticed all these people offering some kind of help and it will be quite bothersome locating all these threads if needs be...so it's great to gather them in one spot and enable Kiva to get in touch with them when they need their help!