How to choose.....?

[Guest]

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[phyllis_stein]

I'm new here and I'd like to know how others choose who they make a loan to.

I've only made one loan so far, but I plan to do many more.  My first loan was to Juliet O. in Nigeria.  Honestly, I chose her because I just loved her smile.  Her picture made me feel good.

It seems so silly.  I can't fault people for not smiling or having a bad picture.  I don't think I'd be smiling and I'm sure culturally, many people wouldn't smile for a picture.

So, I guess it was just an emotional response.

Please let me know how you make your choices.

[waywardcats]

Hi Phyllis and  to Kiva Friends.

You may want to browse this topic How do you pick your loan? in which a number of Kiva Friends have discussed this very thing.

For myself there are a number of things that go into my lending decisions.  I am a collector of Kiva countries, so I tend to try to have at least one loan from each country in my portfolio. 

I prefer to loan to women, though I will loan to the occasional man, but I like to keep my portfolio around 90% female.

With all the complicated issues now, currency risk, for example, I tend now to favor certain MFIs.  While I will accept currency risk loans, I prefer to do so only for non-profit MFIs to whom I would consider currency fluctuation loss a donation.  Larger for-profit MFIs I feel should have currency fluctuation protection in place on their own.

I find that I gravitate to populations that are vulnerable, and therefore I look often for loans to single parents and widows or disabled borrowers or individuals who have a family member for whom they are caretakers.  For these sorts of loans I find it very helpful to be on the targeted teams where members post pointers to loans they find that fit the team motto.  Some of these teams are:

KivaFriends - Agriculture Loans
KivaFriends - Enterprise Loans
KivaFriends - Single Parent Loans
KivaFriends - Disabled Persons
Team Housebuilder

I hope that is helpful and happy lending!

-Kerry-

[Jill]

Hey Phyllis/Alison,
At the risk of getting (justifiably?) accused of being some kind of egotistical maniac, here are a couple of other threads to show you the lengths some of us will go to in order to rationalize our lending addiction. 
I Just HAD To-The Infinite Often Crazy Reasons I Have For My Lending Selections
Field Partners Take Note: Kiva Lenders Will Tell You What "Sells."
Welcome and Happy Lending,
Jill

Also, if you'll join Team Tia, you’ll then be able to read some of the team members’ messages which will give you still more ideas of why people pick the loans that they do.

EDIT: Or, you can check these out, as well, for ideas of loans that many of us found, sometimes for obvious reasons, pretty irresistible:
The Work of Kiva's Entrepreneurs; How Wondrous Is the Variety
Mortgage the House! Sell the Kids! There's a Loan Up Now You Won't Want to Miss
Or, you can go to Best Smiles, or, to at least a couple dozen other nearly as wonderful threads for even more ideas.  But, if you do go read through all those posts, you won’t have any time left to go over to Kiva to make all those loans you want to make, so, do be careful.

EDIT #2:  Up to my early morning (now) old tricks, instead of sleeping at 4 something on a Saturday morning, I found myself looking for some fun world music to listen to and ended up reading through all the posts in the I Just HAD To thread, mentioned above.  With the latter, I was struck by many things, but one of the most powerful and most affecting was just how close, how cohesive and caring the community of KivaFriends came out, became so obvious in the exchange of posts found in this thread. 

That, and the absolutely lovely diversity of connections people expressed their having felt with various of the Kiva entrepreneurs make the thread worth reading or rereading.  Well, I think so, anyway.  For those reasons, alone, be forewarned, I’ll now be especially on the lookout for a loan that I’ll “just have to” make, so I can try to resurrect that thread and encourage you all to keep showing the beauty of your hearts and the connections you feel with Kiva’s borrowers and with your fellow Kiva Friends.  For me, the thread shows KivaFriends at its dearest….

[alan]

And, of course, whatever other criteria you might choose, don't forget to sort first by "Expiring Soon" so you lend to the oldest loans that otherwise fit your criteria. There's no particular crisis right now, thank the deity of your choice, but I don't think we've seen the end of Red Loans.

Late Loaning Lenders
Late Loaning Lenders FAQ

alan

[Jan & John]

Hi Alison - helpful hint: if you sign your post, then your new friends won't call you Phyllis, even though we are all wondering how you chose your KF name .

I just love when new people get topics aired again...
There is always something new to learn.

I agree with so much in Kerry's post, specially...

I am a collector of Kiva countries, so I tend to try to have at least one loan from each country in my portfolio. 

I think collecting countries helps to keep your portfolio diversified.

I also try to balance a short term loan with one that has a longer term.  And some of my favourites are group loans that are also end of term because I think they help the very very poor farmers because they only need to pay back at harvest time.  (AMK in Cambodia comes to mind

but definitely, I am drawn in by the smiles...
and the babies...
and the animals...
and the scenery... I will lend first to someone posed under a tree than in an office.

I also like to make eye contact with the photo, copy it to a file in my computer and then that person becomes a friend and an important part of my life.

be well, jan

[Mona]

Hi Alison,

As you can see from the excellent posts above there are many ways how to choose your loans. I am a lender since about 1 and a half year and I have found that my way of loan choosing has significantly changed during this time.
First I also "collected" countries (though I still try to get on each new country whenever one is posted). Second I focused on making loans complete, i.e. finding those where only $25 were left to fund. A really satisfying feeling. After this I chose the contrary and made loans where I was the first lender because I loved to see other lenders coming in to join me on loans and seeing their pictures and reading their stories. At the moment I mostly choose loans that are somehow special to me. As most of these categories have already been given above I just want to add one more category, the Education loans.

So if you want an advice just follow your heart. There is no right and wrong in loaning. 

Best wishes,
(Ra)mona

[phyllis_stein]

Hi Alison - helpful hint: if you sign your post, then your new friends won't call you Phyllis, even though we are all wondering how you chose your KF name .

Thanks for that!  My KF name is a user name I use a lot (it's also my email).  It's completely tongue in cheek.  The more so, being used here on Kiva I think.

Oh!  and at the risk of insulting anyone's intelligence...

phyllis_stein....... philistine.... get it?

[phyllis_stein]

So if you want an advice just follow your heart. There is no right and wrong in loaning. 

I love this 

Thanks for all the responses and thread links posted.  A had a good laugh over some of them.  The bottle of corona is a picture?!?!  

Love it!