Celebrating the completion of a Kiva loan

[Guest]

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[Cailin@Kiva]

In a recent feedback discussion about the upcoming changes to My Portfolio > Transactions, several lenders mentioned that they enjoy having easier access to information about which Kiva loans have recently completed.  You can view this original discussion here:  http://www.kivafriends.org/index.php/topic,5784.0.html.

I'd like to solicit a little more feedback on this particular issue.  This will ultimately feed in to plans for an upcoming tune-up of My Portfolio > Loans.  

Here are two specific questions to get the discussion started.

#1.  If you had easy access to a list of recently completed loans in your portfolio, what would you do with this information? What specific action would you take? Please note:  "I take a moment to internally reflect on this borrower's success" is a perfectly valid "action"!  Also wondering though, if there is anything else.  Go to the Borrower's Profile and leave a comment?  Post a message to a team message board? Update some offline spreadsheet you keep about your portfolio?

#2. Kiva loans can reach completion in a variety of different states
  a. Borrower/partner paid in full, lender re-paid in full (yay!)
  b. Borrower/partner paid in full but currency loss occurred, lender suffers currency loss
  c. Borrower/partner did not pay in full, lender suffers loss

If Kiva had a section of My Portfolio where you could view "recently completed" loans, what would you call it?  Would you include all three of the above end states?  Or would including loans with losses ruin the potential "celebratory nature" of this section?  Also - does suffering $0.02 cents of currency loss on a $25 loan ruin the celebration of a completed loan for you?  E.g. do you  feel differently about currency losses versus borrower/partner losses?  If so, is that difference based on the amount (historically, currency losses have typically been small at Kiva), or the source of the loss?

[AccountAbility]

I would like Kiva to stick with the loan terminology it uses in my Portfolio.
Paying Back
Paid Back
Ended with Loss
Refunded
There is a transaction posted which results in both (a) the "you have credits" email that announces that 100% has been paid back (forgetting for a moment the truncation of the email) and (b) moves the loan from the Paying Back Group to the Paid Back Group.

For me, I post THAT particular repayment transaction to my own Portfolio loan detail, look again at the original borrower picture and write-up and then move both picture and loan detail from my "active" or "paying back" loans to my "paid back" loan section.  (Jan probably moves her loan page in her coffee table picture book)

Since I haven't had any currency loss, I don't know where Kiva places such a loan-- in the "paid back" or in the "ended with loss".  I'd probably categorize it as paid back because the loan is about the borrower and if the borrower repaid 100% I would celebrate with him or her anyway.

We don't get many journals anymore so there isn't much Kiva is providing that aids in the celebration.  By giving lenders their credits back in small increments spanning many pages leads toward impersonal commoditization.   A singled out 100% repayment transaction in Transactions would at least help.

To the borrower, its a loan, plain and simple.  And loans are paid back--or not. Currency fluctuations are of no concern to the borrower.  And a default is not paying back-- for whatever reason legitimate or not.

Dan

[alan]

I typically get 50 or so loans reaching completion every month, the vast majority all on one day. So although I do cheer the clients all collectively, except where I am watching a specific situation I find it difficult to do much more than reflect quietly and move on.

In the days leading up to the 15th, I do like to check on loans that are due to end, and remember why I chose that loan in the first place. Having that information available on the Estimated Repayments page is handy. A one-click list of loans nearing completion would be even handier.

Incidentally, several months ago there was some talk round here (initiated by lenders, not by Kiva) of having a feature where a lender could "pin" a loan to the first page of the Lender pages (like pinning applications at the top of the Start menu in Windows). That would make for a quick and easy way to showcase or keep an eye on specific loans. For example, I love re-lending to the same client, and could use this feature to pin the first loan beside the new one. Any thoughts from Kiva's side as to whether this is a feature worth considering?

[David2051]

It would be nice if there were some way to actually celebrate the final repayment with the borrower, like a mortgage burning party.  I believe there are some mfi's where the borrower gets some tangible benefits if they successfully repay the loan, like a rebate of some interest into a savings account.  I don't know if there is anything that could be done to provide a concrete connection between borrower and lender in some way like that.  Perhaps collecting congratulatory messages like journal comments that would be delivered when the final repayment is made, or a journal with a photo of the borrower making the last payment with some congratulations from the mfi staff at that time.

Kiva's mission is connecting people to alleviate poverty, but that connection is so difficult to establish and so easily lost.  It would be great if some little ritual celebrating the final repayment could reinforce the connection with those we are hoping to help.

[JohnR]

If you had easy access to a list of recently completed loans in your portfolio, what would you do with this information?

Nothing.  I keep a spreadsheet on all my loans and update it every time a transaction is completed, logging payments and indicating whether it's ended or not, PIF, or has currency loss.  I then run a macro that sorts my active loans by country and shows the due date and MFI, this way I can easily see how I should spread the risk on my next loan.  My point is that I already have acted on the information through the transactions screen, I wouldn't need a separate list of recently repaid loans.

If Kiva had a section of My Portfolio where you could view "recently completed" loans, what would you call it?

"Recently completed" might be taken to include recently funded loans, so maybe something like "Recently Ended Loans."   Hopefully nothing cutesy like "Recent Opportunities for Celebration."

As far as celebrating, I don't do much.  I always pull up the person's page (I have a link in my spreadsheet) when the loan is ended so I can be reminded who they are.  And I feel thoughts like, "good deal, I hope you're better off now than at the start of the loan."  But I'm not overly romantic about it.  I assume they can't read my thoughts and that I make up absolutely no part of their lives.

Although connecting me to the borrowers is a noble idea, I think in practice Kiva can't do more than they do already, which is to allow me to loan to a specific individual.  And I don't ask for more.  Unless Kiva wanted to fund airfare and expenses for me to visit my borrowers in their homes; I'm open to that.     (Assuming the borrowers don't mind some dopey American wearing out their furniture and eating a week's worth of their groceries in a single meal.)

[AccountAbility]

Alan, I agree that the repayments on the 15th batch a bunch together.  It usually takes me about a week to fully digest those transactions.  Nevertheless, I do in fact treat them individually--eventually.

David, I do like the idea of somehow increasing the celebratory nature of a 100% paid back.  Perhaps these could be separated out of the "you have credits" email and put into another email celebrating those borrowers who successfully paid back their loan.  

If that were done, I would probably turn off my daily setting for credit notifications and turn on the highest frequency available for 100% paybacks.  Maybe it would result in too many emails for lenders with very large portfolios if there was an email for each payback, but that would be nice for most of us.  Alan apparently has a large enough portfolio that the 25 limit on the "you have credits" email still prevents him from being notified of his 100% paybacks.  Sorry, Alan.  

Dan

[Amy-in-PHX]

I use the "estimated repayments" screen we have now, because the word "final" is written next to the loans that are expected to finish paying that month.  On or shortly after the 15th of the month, I go down the list, and click to open up the loan page of each loan marked "final."  If the borrower paid on time, and the net billing process or a payment from the MFI results in me getting the credit on time, then I get to see the fact of 100% repayment when I open up that loan page.  I recall the reasons why I chose that loan, I feel proud of the borrower (especially if they were delinquent for a while but managed to catch up), and I think warm thoughts and pray for the borrower and her/her family.  In a couple of cases, I posted the loan photo from a completed loan here on KivaFriends, with some words explaining why I am particularly fond of that loan and celebrating the loan's completion. 

Unfortunately, those "estimated repayments" entries disappear on the 1st of the next month.  So any late payments would mean I don't get to do this when the borrower finally does make their "final" payment.  I would use a "recently ended loans" section in the same way I now use the "estimated repayments," but for loans where the final payment came late.  And I might someday learn to use spreadsheets and use it somehow for that, but right now I don't have that skill.   

If I were to receive a special "recently ended loans" email update, I might leave a "comment" to the update, in response.  I do that often with the updates that announce full funding at the start of a loan, saying that I hope that the borrower will have good health and prosperity.  But so much time elapses between when the borrower makes a payment, and when the credit comes to me, that really the loan is old history to the borrower, by the time I hear that final payment has been made.  That lapse of time might deter me from leaving a comment.

I love David's idea of a photo related to final payment of a loan.  But it sounds a little resource-intensive, to upload additional photos.  Maybe it would be better to have a "recently ended loans" update email, or "recently ended loans" section in Portfolio, that would work automatically, without requiring any Field Partner employee time.

I agree with previous comments about "currency loss" not affecting how I would feel about a borrower, who had repaid what s/he agreed to repay.  Defaults are different -- but if you leave them out of the new section, then you may want to call it "successfully ended loans" instead of "recently" -- otherwise, it's not accurate.

[David2051]

I love David's idea of a photo related to final payment of a loan.  But it sounds a little resource-intensive, to upload additional photos.  Maybe it would be better to have a "recently ended loans" update email, or "recently ended loans" section in Portfolio, that would work automatically, without requiring any Field Partner employee time.

I don't know what would work, but my thought was that the borrower should be included in the celebration.  If the borrower is not somehow included it's sort of like not inviting them to their own birthday party.  The fizz sort of goes out of the bubbly...
   

[Amy-in-PHX]

I don't know what would work, but my thought was that the borrower should be included in the celebration.  If the borrower is not somehow included it's sort of like not inviting them to their own birthday party.  The fizz sort of goes out of the bubbly...
   

I see what you mean!

[Cailin@Kiva]

Thank-you all so much for your thoughts and ideas!

I will take a moment to digest all this with the Kiva product team, and will be back in a few days with a concrete proposal for a Tune Up to the Portoflio > Loans section which will incorporate as much of this as feasible.  Everyone will have the opportunity to give detailed feedback / suggestions to this proposal before it goes live.