Here is my suggestion to get SCHOOLS INVOLVED

[Guest]

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[phisquared]

This has probably already come up but if not...here it goes!

Problem: Only a person can have multiple loans under their account.  This makes a one to many the only possiblity.

Suggestion:  Can the lending pages/process be changed a bit.   Instead of multi loans to one person.  Can there be single loans to one person (class) that are all contained under a single person (school).

Example:  The xyz school has one Kiva account.   The A,B, and C classes have put in $25 per class into the xyz school account under the A, B, and C sub account.  Now class A connects to the web site and picks a borrower and chooses their $25 from their sub account of the xyz school....then they lend.

Potential:  It would not take much discussion to get 1 class to afford $25, now the problem is to get xyz school to setup and maintain the master account....which should not be that much of a problem.  So, money collection is the easy part!  This would allow many schools the ability to get on Kiva.   For $1 per child (assuming 25 kids per class), and at least 20 classes per school, and with at least 1% of all schools getting in on this....huge!  Plus, this might be a good thing for the schools to learn about lending and borrowing.

If you kiva folks don't understand then please let me know.  I think the potential is huge.

Thanks,
PHI Squared
PS.  I also posted this in the suggestion box forum header.

[Evelyn Yvonne Theriault]

Hello PHIsquared,
Interesting suggestions, however in my experience, the KIVA school experience usually springs out of the action of one teacher who then might spread it to other classes. In most areas it is easier for one teacher to have a PAYPAL account with her class then to jump through the hoops of getting the school to open up an official account.  Of course, the type of whole school account that you envision is something that might develop once a critical mass of individual teachers are involved.
I'm not sure if you're working in an education setting, but you'll probably realize that there are many fund-raising activities going on in schools. For instance in our elementary school this year, apart from the traditional drives (e.g. Terry Fox Run, UNICEF, Christmas Food Baskets) school groups have raised substantial funds for a school in Burkina Faso and sponsored a foster child. In my experience, once something becomes an official school-wide activity it is more vulnerable to being cancelled school-wide, whereas individual classroom activities can keep on going.
Evelyn

Link: KIVAPEDIA EDUCATION
http://www.kivapedia.org/index.php/Main_Page/Education