To go along with my last topic on mine and Sierra's Fundraiser in DC on Tuesday, September 30th an event any and all are welcome to attend, I had an idea I wanted to get feedback on from this group.
Kiva Fellows are unpaid volunteers for Kiva that spend 3 or more months visiting Field Partners for Kiva to provide journal updates on borrowers and work with the Field Partners to maximize their relationship with Kiva. To do so, we (I'm a member of the 6th class of Kiva Fellows and going to Peru and Bolivia) often quit our jobs or take an extended leave of absence and rely on our own savings, family, and friends to help us defray the costs of travel and housing overseas. For me that meant making a decision on the length of my fellowship based on how much I had in my savings account and I'm sure many others of us dealt with the same situation. Thus, though we may be able to cover our costs initially, it's less than ideal (for instance, I'd love to do this for six months or more but would be completely broke by mid-February or so).
So what's my great idea? If people wanted to show their support both for Kiva and for a particular Kiva Fellow, they could give Kiva gift certificates to that fellow. The Kiva Fellow would then loan the money on Kiva's website (letting the supporter know who s/he is loaning to), and while the loan is being repaid monthly be able to withdraw the partial repayments into his/her bank account. Thus, the initial supporter would not only be adding another Kiva borrower to their loan portfolio, they would also be helping support a Kiva Fellow in the field. If we wanted to, we could start a "Supporting Kiva and Supporting Kiva Fellow _______ ) lending team and have all loans made through these gift certificates be credited to that team. Anyone who lent to the borrowers and gave to the Kiva Fellows would be a member.
I think this makes sense for several reasons. First, as mentioned earlier many of us already have some of our own money that we put up front to buy plane tickets, etc (It'd be a little foolhardy to accept an assignment you can't pay for...though some may say leaving your job to live in a hut in Southern Sudan for six months is foolhardy too 
). So anyone who supports us is really helping us offset that initial cost or maybe extending the length of time we can be in the field collecting stories from borrowers and supporting Kiva and its Field Partners. The new Partial Repayments feature and the associated increase in liquidity means that it's conceivable the cumulative monthly repayments could cover a Kiva Fellow's "operating costs" like housing and food. For example, if I raise $1000 and lend it out to businesses with 6 month loan terms, my supporter would not only help pay my $167 a month rent in Bolivia (bc I'd be withdrawing the accumulated repayments as they come in from borrowers) but also help up to 40 more businesses on Kiva's website.
Please post replies with your thoughts on the manner. If you think it's great, post. and email me at
joshtoro@gmail.com if you want me to be the guinea-pig for this idea
(although where I'm going, people eat guinea pigs...
)
If you think it's good in theory but spot some potential flaws, post.
If you think it undermines Kiva in some way, post.
If you think it could potentially transform the way Kiva Fellows pay for their fellowship, post.
If you just don't like the idea, post.
If there's a theme to this 'call-and-answer' postscript, it's... post. It'd be great to see this be a hot topic because I think it's one worth generating a big discussion.
Thanks a lot,
Josh 'El Toro' B
Kiva Fellow, 6th Class, Peru- EDAPROSPO Bolivia- Emprender
An aside
To me, it's a little weird asking for donations to help cover the costs of my Kiva fellowship when one of the core motivations of Kiva is to move international development funders from Donors to Partners. However, with this proposed dynamic, the several thousand of dollars that I'll be spending upfront to fund my Kiva fellowship without any outside participation will be spread around across many people to make it more bearable, transformed into supporting several hundred (!) new businesses in the process, potentially bring in many new people in contact with Kiva.org, and if successful could throw open the doors to letting many, many more fiscally constrained Kiva Fellows go out into the field longer and further deepen and expand the reach of Kiva worldwide. One of my favorite things about Kiva is that it allows people to transform ANY size amount of capital from IDLE into USEFUL. With this potential dynamic, all of the capital is MOVING and USEFUL. As my Kiva lender page implies, I think capital ought to continuously be ENABLING people when they need it. This does that... to a far greater extent than the current status quo 
