Who do you lend to?

[Guest]

.

[Erica]

I just made my first loans yesterday. I felt a real connection to my first recipient. His loan will be used to purchase four calves -- having grown up on a farm, I could identify with that desire and the value of these animals. I was also attracted to the fact that he is exactly the same age as I am and is a displaced person trying to make a living in tough circumstances.

I tend to loan first to those who are engaged in traditional work such as farming, woodworking or traditional crafts. I also sorted the list to find the oldest listings and made a few loans to folks who may have been waiting for a while.

I unintentionally made loans only to men in Azerbaijan. My intention is to diversify both in terms of the gender of the recipient and the country in which they live, but basically I go with my gut instinct. I just love being able to know who it is that I am helping. I've also realized that my knowledge of geography leaves a bit to be desired, so I purchased a world map and have started to place pins on the city where each of my sponsored businesses is located. Did someone say OCD? 

[Fred]

Hi Erica,

Welcome to Kiva! Using a world map is a good geography refresher. Below is a link to my electronic world pin map, which you can share with friends on the net. Left clicking a face on the map takes you to their Kiva page.

http://www.mapservices.org/myguestmap/map/Kiva

[Erica]

Fred,

Thank you for sharing that site! What a great idea. My sister is the techie in the family and will set up a similar site so we can see the impact we're having as a family. I'm a paper-based gal myself, so it will be a map and a little binder that will have a printout of information about each country along with the profile of each business I help support. After reading so much in the Sunday Globe about what is going terribly wrong in the world, it's nice to be able to take a positive step to empower someone to grow their business and support themselves and their family.

Take care all!

Erica

[ekparr9]

I'm Hispanic, so I lend to those in Latin America.  But if someone has a great business I'll also lend to them.

[Jacquie]

When I look for a new loan, the first thing I look for is to see if there are any new countries on the list that I don't already have.  After that little OCD episode is over, then I prefer to loan to businesses that invest money into capital goods -- anyone who wants to buy tools or machines, or who can repair tools and machines.

OCD lol  My OCD reared its head in trying to space out the loan terms so that eventually they will come due every month, and then I can feed my addiction by being able to constantly re-invest on a somewhat regular basis.  That didn't last too long 

I also prefer to loan to people who want to buy something specific, like a cow or sewing machine. Makes it seem more concrete to me rather than just requesting more capital to expand their business. I realize though that it just depends on how the description is written up though, so mostly its just a feeling when I'm drawn to a person's story. For example, I was drawn to a few ladies with similar stories, and in the end chose one lady -- because she had on a Brittney Spears t-shirt! (figured she needed an extra bit of help) (Ironically, she just made her first payment - at 66% of the loan at that!)

[lemming]

nfolkert, your point about capital goods is a good one and I think I'll start taking that into account.

In response to optimistic.bob, I USED to go for loans that needed exactly the amount I like to loan, so that I could be the one to make them fully funded. Then I figured out that I wasn't the only one doing it... now I like to leave "bait", bringing loans to $25 or $50 away from funded. Usually when I do that, someone snaps up that remaining bit overnight. 

[Nick]

I am currently working in Phnom Penh, Cambodia posting CREDIT clients to the Kiva site.  This month has been crazy as we're trying to keep up with all the press Kiva is getting and all the new users that are coming on everyday to lend. 
Its great seeing what everyone looks for when they are picking who to lend to!  Its important to keep transaction costs down for an MFI, so we usually only spend 10-15 minutes with a client gathering information.   Right now, we focus mostly on family, business, income, and future plans.  If anybody likes the borrowers from Cambodia and has other information that they would find more interesting/useful/helpful, please please post this!  We can get quite a bit of information in the short meeting, so let us know what you like! Suggestions for pictures are also welcome.

Thank you all for supporting Kiva, CREDIT, and microfinance.  I see it work everyday!

Thanks again from Phnom Penh!

[Julia]

Nick, great to see you here. Its really interesting to hear about Kiva from another angle!

Now I must confess, I just bid on someone (and I have done this before) just because she shares my name. I just can't turn down a Julia.  http://www.kiva.org/app.php?page=businesses&action=about&id=8267

Julias of the world Unite!

[multimutts]

Hi

When choosing a person to lend to, I confess that I read the little descriptions pretty carefully.  I make only one loan a month.  I really want to get a sense of knowing something about the person .... and I really like to know that the loan will have an affect that goes beyond just that one individual.  Do they have an extended family that they support? Do they have employees that count on the business being a success? Do they provide a vital service to a community? and so on.  Then,  I look for something that I have in common with them, or for some sort of 'human' connection.  This month, I made my final selection on who to loan to, just because the note mentioned that her child had asthma.  I have asthma, and I felt some sort of connection to that.  I also like that the person has done some sort of "homework", as in specifying how much extra money they will have as a result of selling the milk from their new cow, and so forth.  This gives me the idea that the repayment of the loan will not cause them undue hardship, and gives a more secure feeling that I will be repaid. 

Maybe it's easier to say who I specifically 'rule out' as someone not to loan to.  If the MFI has posted multiple loans that basically all say the same thing, I look elsewhere.  A few months ago, there seemed to be alot of descriptions that all sounded alike, as in "here is bob, he is an IDP, he needs money to run a business"; then, further down the page there was "here is joe, he is an IDP, he needs money to run a business", and so on.   Write ups like that pretty much discouraged me completely and caused me to move on.

I hope this helps.

patti

[Wood Fairy Glenda]

Note to Julia:  I supported a Glenda in Honduras, just because she shared my name.  I try to spread my loans all over the world, and especially like to support the most impoverished borrowers, even though the risk might be greater.  I really don't consider these loans an investment for me.  If the people pay back, I'm pretty certain I'll just turn around and invest in someone else the minute I get the notice.  In fact, I was wondering if there's any way, if I were to die, that I could specify that whatever money remains in my PayPal account for KIVA loans gets sent back to KIVA for their use.  Does anyone have any ideas how I could do that?  Thanks, Wood Fairy Glenda