Lending versus Donating

[Guest]

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[jeff4748]

Hi All,

I've been making donations to Kiva for the last 3 years, but am new to the kivafriends.org site, so sorry if this has been asked and I missed it in the FAQ.

When I started, I budgeted for lending $100 a month and re-lending the amounts paid back. At first this was pretty easy, I'd choose a few loans to make and donate 10% or so on top of that to Kiva (so I guess it was really more like a $110 budget). Lately as I've started to get the monthly loan repayments of $350 or so and I re-loan another $100 on top of that, donating 10-15% has become problematic as it adds another 45-75$  per month to my overall lending and donation.

My question to the community is how do people who donate on top of lending deal with this? I think it's important to help support Kiva beyond just lending by donating for the overhead, but I'd also like to help more people by doing more lending as well. What's the right balance?

Thanks for any and all thoughts.

[alan]

 

A good question, Jeff, and welcome aboard KivaFriends!

I think the question of how much to donate to Kiva is a very personal matter. Yes, Kiva needs operating funds, and yes, you have limits as to how much you can donate. I suppose that since you're putting in a regular amount of capital each month one option would be to donate a percentage of the capital you're putting in, and then relend without adding a donation. So, for the example you give, you might consider adding your new $100 each month, plus some percentage (10%? 15%?) of that, $10 or $15. Then when the repayments come in, you could relend, knowing that you have already donated a percentage of that capital. Or choose a fixed amount ($25? $50?) to donate each month to Kiva regardless of your lending activity.

The question is ultimately one of balance, within your personal budget. Whatever you decide to contribute, do so cheerfully and not out of a sense of guilt or obligation. I think if you can manage that, then the amount won't be as important, and I suspect the balance will be right.

[jeff4748]

Thanks for the reply. I agree it's a personal decision, but I'm also wondering about the amount of overhead that Kiva has to put in to deal with each loan. I assume its really small since the local banks are the ones that really manage the loans, but I don't know. I'd like to make sure I donate enough for them to at least cover their own overhead.