Kiva in October 2009 Business Week

[Guest]

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[AccountAbility]

Just to link this together, the author [EDIT: Tim Ogden] is the same one engaged in similar somewhat slanted commentary at philanthropyaction.com, which is being discussed in the David Roodman thread here:

http://www.kivafriends.org/index.php/topic,4393.0.html

Dan

EDIT: And also the author of the mostly comprehensive guide thread at:

http://www.kivafriends.org/index.php/topic,4420.0/topicseen.html

[Dagfinn]

After reading this (which also reminds me what a blessing it is to have KivaFriends pointing out so much I else would miss) and making my comment I went to the Kiva page and read what it now says it does.

So much better and definitely a major step in the right direction - our hope for change do pay dividends at times 

- Be well all, Dagfinn A

[Jan & John]

Transparency on Trial? Dennis Whittle from Global Giving weighs in on the debate...

I think we have a collective responsibility to keep pushing the envelope on transparency and authenticity of the experience.

and

I admire how Matt and Premal have responded to the debate over at Kiva. Their response sets an admirable standard for speed and transparency.

-jan- who never quite knows where to post this stuff

[timothyogden]

For the record I'd like to make it clear that:

1) I wrote the piece referenced in this thread but had nothing to do with how it was titled.
2) I originally wrote the piece for Harvard Business and didn't know it was syndicated to Business Week until much later.
3) I do not support the description of Kiva as "troubled"
4) In everything I've written about Kiva throughout I've tried to bring the point back to the culpability of donors who demand something unreasonable and quite possibly harmful from nonprofits and then get angry when nonprofits try to appease them while still doing the right thing. That generally doesn't apply to Kiva Friends who are of course among the most informed of Kiva lenders and will have found none of the "revelations" to be a surprise. But it does describe a lot of people who are overeacting to the NYT story.

Finally the point I was trying to make about kivafriends providing a platform for unhappy lenders was not meant to imply that all users of kivafriends are unhappy but that the existence of kivafriends makes it easier for those who are unhappy to communicate their displeasure to others. That is a danger for any organization that decides to take an approach like Kiva's--the platform works just as well for unhappy customers as it does for happy customers.

[AccountAbility]

Apology accepted.

Dan

[Jan & John]

I find that Kiva Friends, while allowing me to see more of what goes on behind the scenes...

actually is a support group where I can vent and be soothed by friends who see the other side of the coin.

The Kiva Lender Messages and the Kiva Lender Teams however are not quite the same.

I am just now seeing the teams catch on to what has been discussed here for quite a while...

and some of those people are flailing around not knowing who to talk to or where to go for advice.

My own team is small but some of the larger teams can pass a message of doom faster than Twitter

I agree with Tim's use of 'people overreact.'    Knee jerk reactions instead of sitting down with the facts until daylight creeps in to explain the reality of the way things need to be.

People overreact, and that's a fact of life we, and Kiva, need to deal with daily.

-jan-

[RichardF]

I find it interesting that I don't even have any Team Messages for Me at all right now.  I must be in lots of mellow groups. Or...
Should I check the Kiva Technical Issues topic?   Is something busted again? 

[Jan & John]

oops - nope - no news for me today either...

it's the small stuff like this that makes me annoyed...

If I went to my online bank and saw little glitches all the time I would wonder how well they could look after my money...

what does a new lender think when they see these things...

Kiva has to fill up the holes in this ship...

-jan-