Are Kiva Friends still Friends of Kiva?

[Guest]

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[Gerard]

Thank you Gerard for posting here. To be brief, for me, lack of transparency is like the wizard of oz and the man behind the curtain. Great pronouncements are issued forth and the little people look at each other and wonder where did that come from.

For instance, Autolending - announced as a most requested feature. Today , someone was posting about how long, how many weeks, it takes to get money back from Kiva. People here (on KF) have talked about the lack of a reliable process to withdraw money from Kiva for months, if not longer. Yet resources, which we hear are short, are devoted to a feature that took me, as well as others by surprise. Then comes the rumor, "Oh, over 500 people emailed about it as a desired feature". So the next question is- "Oh, email 500 times and Kiva responds ?"

Thanks for responding, Tom. This is a great point - that when we release something new it can seem unexpected or low-priority given everything that's going on.

On the auto lender feature - the 500 emails is not a rumor. And I don't think we ever gave that as the sole justification for the feature. Someone asked in a thread here if it was really a highly-requested feature, and I mentioned that, far and away, it was.

However, there are a few other reasons why this took priority -

1 - There is a TON of idle credit in lender accounts. We wanted to give lenders a way to easily put it to work
2 - When we talked about the escheatment issue last year (having to hand abandoned lender accounts to the state governments) there was a general feeling among most lenders who responded, that they'd like to have a way to keep their lender accounts going as long as possible, should something happen to them.

That said, 500 emails, at this point, is about a sixth of what we receive in a month. However, for a feature request, that's a huge number, and it's something that makes us take notice.

It is not clear what your goals are - and if you do have goals at all. "Set Expectations" is a mantra some companies find successful.  So, does emailing 500 times get things done ?

Our goals for 2009 are:

1 - Grow the Lender Base
(U.S. lending falls under this, as well as the API and lending teams)
2 - Engage the Existing Lender Base
(Auto Lending, Fellows Program (focus on video))
3 - Increase Capacity
(Grow the number of partners)
4 - Push Transparency
(Work on risk model improvements as well as start the conversation about how to bring social performance to Kiva)

Will you ever resolve the weeks long process it takes to withdraw money ?

Yes. Right now, the engineering team is working on integrating our withdrawals process with PayPal's Mass Pay API. It's a manual process at the moment, but we're moving away from that. One of the reasons it's taken so long, is that we've seen an uptick in malicious use of the withdrawal option, and we've been fighting those fires.

And one further example - US Lending. Was it on the front page of the Kiva.org website when it was available ? Or were we supposed to watch TV to get info on it ? Was an email sent to the lenders as it launched explaining it ? When significant discord and gnashing of teeth resulted, what was Kiva's position ? Let it fester ?

I understand the value of a big PR splash, and why you did not release lots of details ahead of time,  but getting your lenders up to speed on the details and responding to the backlash did not really happen.

I personally would have tried to gauge lender response prior to letting loose the program. Perhaps a focus group (though I loathe the term) or a small cadre of long time lenders' feedback might have made the launch a bit less contentious. I would have told you $10,000 might be too much to start with. And when discord did occur, I really did not see a direct, honest and forthcoming discussion of the reasons this was a good move.

Like you said, we didn't talk much about the U.S. launch prior to it happening because it could have compromised the media that we got out of it. We didn't anticipate the backlash because this was something that lenders had been asking for from the early days.

But, I do think we were pretty forthcoming here:http://www.kiva.org/about/inside/2009/06/19/letter-from-kiva-about-pilot.html
and here: http://www.kiva.org/about/inside/2009/08/03/message-in-response-to-your-questions.html

[Gerard]

Thanks, Gerard,

just a few remarks re: your questions:

some first ideas - I am sure there are many more -:

a) With crucial site updates/new features (potentially) affecting all or most lenders in a "financial" way - either by adding to the risks or by altering repayment schedules and patterns - (like: new repayment system last year and currency risk sharing this year), make sure that all lenders will learn (1) that something crucial has changed and (2) where to find accessible and understandable information on what exactly has changed and how it affects lenders.

IMHO, an e-mail or lender message to all lenders (not only those receiving the newsletter) ahead of implementation of the changes would be the best way to achieve this. Alternatively or cumulatively put a big banner onto the home page and the basket/checkout page for at least one or two months.

b) News regarding Field Partners - especially bad news - and all rating changes need to be communicated in a prominent space (like a "Field Partner Updates"-section of the homepage); there also has to be an alert that something has recently changed with a Field Partner on this Field Partner's fundraisng loan pages (e.g. it was inacceptable IMHO that BRAC Tanzania raised loans without any comment [for some time, there was not even an update on their FP page] that they currently aren't able to transfer repayments due to Central Bank regulations... only a handful of previous lenders learnt that from a Field Update to old loans).

c) In case of rating changes and FP updates, these need to be dated without exception, and the old status needs to be archived for later reference.

d) Check your site for "N/A"s and think carefully, if, why and for how long these are necessary or whether they can be replaced with actual figures.

e) Publish general release notes on the site with any iteration. These can be brief but should list what changed and which bugs are supposed to be fixed.

f) Publish more detailed release notes - preferably at least one or two days in advance - for developers if the changes may affect their applications.

g) Fix (still sorting page-by-page, after about 4 months!) and improve your existing portfolio information tools, and add new ones for lenders to be able to get a quick overview of their portfolio without resorting to (great) external applications.

h) Work on the stats you are publishing... some formulas are counter-intuitive, some are rather misleading. Portfolio yield is a definite improvement compared to self-reported interest rates, but it still (probably) isn't a very accurate mirror of actual interest rates for Kiva borrowers. Try to post about "benefits" for Kiva borrowers where applicable (one of the US Field Partners waives a sign-up fee, XacBank gives a bonus for non-delinquent Kiva borrowers...); tell us more about the extras MFIs offer for their clients (for each Field Partner) - insurance, health care, counseling... possibly include an FP rating regarding social mission (some factors: poverty of borrowers, social extra offers, interest rates, profit margin, ...).

i) Unless you already have one: Draft a Charter containing commitments regarding Customer Service (e.g. "we will get back to you within two weekdays"; "if we aren't able to answer your question with our first reply, we will send you weekly status reports", evaluate in how many cases you managed to meet these criteria and publish the results) [something I frequently saw in the UK].

j) Ask lenders contacting CS for feedback - "was our reply helpful or not? did we answer your question?". Maybe in a short survey.

k) Improve internal communications - sorry to say, but sometimes I get the impression that one person on CS knows more than the next which leads to inconsistent (and sometimes wrong) answers. Whenever you learn of a site problem, automatically inform all CS staffers; same when you learn a solution etc. (that is, unless you already do - then it does not seem to work in all cases).

l) Improve currency risk resources - ideally add a "risk rating" based on the past fluctuation, state 52-week-highs and -lows of the currency, etc.

m) Use the newsletter to give lenders an impression of "what's going on at Kiva" - the current stories from the field are nice and make you feel good, but the lenders still know preciously little about your day-to-day work, the current problems you are facing, your organisation.

n) Think about providing contact information for individual staffers beside CS (like Fiona and Chelsa); at least fix the links on the team page.


See my answer to 1.

* More information about individual MFIs, their organisation, mission, offers, insterest rates, stability, challenges, repayment history - when did you last visit the Field Partner, how's communications, when was the last due diligence/auditing conducted?

* More and advance information about changes to the site, bug fixes etc.

* Better tools for portfolio management.

* Transparent loan risk rating (the stars really don't say much and have proven to be extremely unreliable, too) and currency risk rating.

The channels are mostly fine - just add

(a) a release notes and archives section,
(b) a section bundeling FP news,
(c) e-mails to all lenders in case of truly major changes.

Perhaps also a section containing reports of unfixed bugs (that don't constitute security issues) so that people don't report them 100 times - ideally together with an estimate when they will get fixed.

Some first thoughts...
best wishes,
Wolfgang.

We've had a spec floating around for about a year now that would consolidate all the news that's pertinent to you (your journals, Field Partner updates, lending team messages, lender messages, etc) and put them in an "Updates" tab. Hopefully, that's something we can get to next year. In the meantime, failing a new feature like that, we should make sure all the Field Partner pages are updated as often as possible, so you can see a history of the changes. This is an ideal we've been working toward.

A bunch of great solutions here as well. I may PM you for more details on some of them. Thanks!

[AccountAbility]

We've had a spec floating around for about a year now that would consolidate all the news that's pertinent to you (your journals, Field Partner updates, lending team messages, lender messages, etc) and put them in an "Updates" tab. Hopefully, that's something we can get to next year. In the meantime, failing a new feature like that, we should make sure all the Field Partner pages are updated as often as possible, so you can see a history of the changes. This is an ideal we've been working toward.

A bunch of great solutions here as well. I may PM you for more details on some of them. Thanks!

Thanks, Gerard, for being willing to engage in this dialog here.  As you obviously observed, there is some pent up backlog of frustration among lenders here.

1. Maybe I am missing the granularity of the proposed "Update Tab", so maybe it is not the mishmash I perceive of combining Field Partner updates, Journals, Lending team messages and lender messages.  But the idea of aggregating all these dissimilar things together because they all are forms of "Updates" is really bad.  They generally have nothing to do with each other.  And considering how uselessly Journals are currently stored and how sometimes aggravating a slew of team messages can be, please don't combine these.

2. I think David hit on a key point in his post.  The stated goal to grow lenders has got to focus significantly on how to increase "core" lenders (however that is defined). Growing lenders numerically who stop at a few loans invites a declining interest in Kiva.  There just isn't enough activity from four loans to keep a lender focused.  This in turn results in the unused credit phenomena.  And core lenders are asking for improved portfolio management tools and improved new loan sorts and selection criteria.  Yet, Kiva is letting buggy portfolio displays and sorts remain unfixed for an extended period. (e.g. lots of un-recent loans displaying in the "Recent Loans" section.)

If the only things on Kiva's priority goals to (Quoting your post here) "Engage the Existing Lender Base" are Auto Lending, Fellows Program (focus on video)) Kiva is missing the most significant part of its existing lender base.  (Kudos for the Fellows, though.)

3. The new auto-lending feature may have significant numerical appeal, but it has to appeal most to those who look on their funding a loan as a form of donation, one which does not require much engagement, the very antithesis of the position of a typical "core" lender.  It might help reduce unused credits, but it probably won't do much to increase Kiva's faithful following.

4. It is easy to see how lenders could question Kiva's priorities when they see problems with simple solutions remaining while fairly complex "features" are rolled out.  (One example of a problem with a simple solution is Field Partner pages updated with no date posted.  If words can be posted, so can dates.)

With all that said, I remain a Friend, although sometimes frustrated by the little that seems to result from some excellent constructive criticism that regularly is posted on the various threads here.

Dan

[TheTatiana]

What constitutes malicious use of the withdrawal option?  People attempting to withdraw money they don't have?  People entering 100 transactions to withdraw $1 per transaction?  I don't get it.  How can withdrawals be malicious? 

I'm hoping you don't mean that when people get cheesed off at kiva and start withdrawing their money it counts as malicious? 

[Henry]

I guess I'm maliciously withdrawing my funds - everytime some are there!    Everytime!

and for one simple reason- KIVA's 'enhancements' ... I don't like any of them, Became too complicated - too scarey - too difficult.  oh, and the MFI stuff....  lord I could go  on...  <<<<<am no poster boy for sure!!!!!

[Claus-Peter]

What constitutes malicious use of the withdrawal option? 

Very intersting question. Maybe Kiva has regarded this money already as donation to them ? 

[TheTatiana]

Very intersting question. Maybe Kiva has regarded this money already as donation to them ? 

  Claus-Peter, I'm really worried that's what they do mean!   

[tomviolence]

hmmm --- though I can't really speak to what some else meant when they said something, in my perspective, malicious withdrawals might be people who hack into dormant accounts to request money they do not actually have rights to.

Of course, he might be refering to people who bend the corner of a library book page to indicate what page they stopped on.

BTW - just recently, someone posted 100,000 stolen hotmail passwords online. The most common one was 123456. Anyone can write a script to try to login to your Kiva account using simple passwords. They can then wait for the 15th, make a withdrawal request of all the money in your account.

[YowieFreak]

Anyone can write a script to try to login to your Kiva account using simple passwords. They can then wait for the 15th, make a withdrawal request of all the money in your account.

I also suspected that he was talking about withdrawals from hacked accounts, but surely withdrawals aren't processed until the lender responds to an email that Kiva sends requesting confirmation that the withdrawal was actually legitimately made.  (Never having withdrawn any Kiva credits, I assume that that happens.)

Edit:  Hmmm - just thought - the hacker could always change the email address too, couldn't they.

[A Nonny Mouse]

Speaking as someone who has withdrawn money from Kiva, I can confirm no such confirming email is required.


EDIT:  although, after giving it a little more thought, I should mention that once the money hits PayPal, I DO have to log in and convince PayPal that I am who I am before they'll release the money...


says Nonny, who is not withdrawing money because she is unhappy with Kiva, but because one of her credit cards got away from her...somehow...