Groupon discount on Kiva loans & gift cards

[Guest]

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[Peter S]

Get $25 Kiva credit for a loan or gift card, for $15

http://www.groupon.com/deals/kiva-national

Only available for a brief period (2 days 16 hours remaining at the time of this posting), and only 500 available.*  Currently that Groupon page shows 374 bought.   Restricted to US residents

http://www.kiva.org/groupon  - to fund a loan, or purchase a Kiva (Gift) Card with Groupon coupon code.

http://www.kiva.org/groupon/terms - May 31, 2011 redemption deadline, otherwise it becomes a donation to Kiva, and some other stuff aimed at preventing people turning the free $10 into cash.

This is probably aimed at new Kiva users, not sure if it's available to existing users, so just posting this as an item of possible interest.  I wonder who is funding the $10 discount, perhaps Groupon itself, I don't know.  The blurb refers to a "promotion sponsor", but doesn't spell out who it is, as far as I can see from a quick reading.


~Peter

* edit: not a 500 limit, that was Groupon's tipping point, at which the deal is confirmed "on".  Currently 585 bought.

[Henry]

nice Festivus presents?

[Henry]

i'm having trouble getting into it to try to buy one or two or three

anyone figure out who's money covers the diff?

[Diane R]

The Groupon site is being hit hard today, took me a while to get through.
And the deal is one-per-customer.  
I didn't see any indication of who specifically is picking up the difference.

Whether you give the credit as a gift or make the loan yourself, Groupon and supporting sponsors will add $10 to every $15 purchase, up to $500,000.

--Diane.

[Henry]

I like it, it will cover $10 of my $50ish in loss on KIVA.  I wonder if I get mine, then if I can gift others?? will find out as soon as I can get in.  Won't be the first year I gave Christmas Gifts of KIVA GC's.

[Phoenix42]

I don't think so Henry. The way I read it was "one per groupon user".
What you need to do is have all your friends gift you Kiva GC purchased with this groupon

[Diane R]

I don't think so Henry. The way I read it was "one per groupon user".

That's my understanding also. When I bought one earlier this morning, there was no option to purchase more than one. You'd have to create a second (or subsequent) Groupon account to purchase anything more.

--Diane.

[Phoenix42]

Which is reasonable enough. Oprah, I presume, is willing to pick up the $10 tab of getting a someone interested in Kiva. If it was possible for me to buy 10 GC at a $10 per GC discount I would have. Hopefully all 50,000 Groupons get used.

[iampaul]

I wonder if they've blown through the whole offer already. That link is now redirecting me straight back to Kiva, do not pass Go, do not collect $10 off gift certificate.

http://www.groupon.com/deals/kiva-national

Paul

[Diane R]

I wonder if they've blown through the whole offer already.

I don't think so: the text on Kiva says

Welcome Groupon Users

We're glad to see you!
Groupon is down, but you shouldn't be...
...keep checking Groupon, but in the meantime, explore Kiva and help alleviate poverty.

And the last time I was able to get to the Groupon page, they had not yet sold 1,000 offers, which is quite a ways from reaching the 50,000 limit (BUT Oprah's show just started airing 30 minutes ago on the east coast, so it appears groupon.com REALLY couldn't handle the influx, and the demand may eventually reach that 50,000 limit: wouldn't that be excellent??).

--Diane.