Help define the KivaFriends policy about fundraisers

[Guest]

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[Diane R]

The KivaFriends moderating team was recently asked to respond to questions relating to fundraising activities here, and in particular relating to on-going support of Mirembe Community College (MCC) in Kampala, Uganda. The school's founder and director, Florence Kaluuba, is a KivaFriends member herself and has occasionally posted here (and corresponds from time to time with several members who have assisted in past fundraisers). In 5 previous fundraisers, KivaFriends has raised over $30,000 which has been transferred to MCC. These funds have been used for general program expenses such as desks, sewing machines, and school supplies, but also for starting some innovative new programs including introducing hairdressing and cooking courses and starting salons and catering businesses to provide practical experience and employment opportunities for MCC graduates.  In recent years, Florence has been providing updates on the impact of the funds we've raised, and there is no doubt that the funds we provided have made a major difference in improving the lives of the young women at MCC and their families and communities, and likely led to self-sufficiency for many of the graduates. One goal recently has been to help MCC become self-sufficient, and one suggestion in that regard was to develop a craft export business.

In the most recent fundraising campaign, extra funds were collected and earmarked to help establish a craft export business, enabling more self-sufficiency for graduates and for MCC. KF Colette has been working with Florence and with the existing craft export/sales organization Ahkun to try to develop products which could be imported and would sell, and to work out details of how this might be implemented. With her recent impact update, Florence included another proposal for funding, for an area in which to display and store the crafts which graduates are making, although the export arrangements are far from certain. There may be a thought of asking KF for more funds. This is where we would appreciate input from KF members.

We've been asked to provide a statement of how KF would react to future fundraisers. We would appreciate your input so we are sure to develop a fundraising policy that respects and reflects the wishes and interests of KF members.
How would you like KF to approach future fundraising requests, for MCC and other projects which may be suggested?

The moderating team has some concerns. While the KivaFriends "Terms of Use & Registration Agreement" is a little hazy on the subject of fundraisers and only prohibits "unauthorized" requests which have not been passed through the moderators, it is still very clear that KF mostly is and should be a site about Kiva and microfinance. This is especially true now that other platforms exist for socializing and co-ordinating special interests and fundraisers in a more targeted way (Kiva teams and team message boards in particular, with some chatter on Facebook). It is also true that the active KF membership has dwindled somewhat, making any reliance on KF as a fundraising entity risky at best and possibly increasing the pressure on remaining active members to contribute. Finally, seeing that we receive several fundraising requests each year, we are looking for a consistent approach in dealing with all of them.

So far, we have basically agreed that to be considered for approval for exposure on KF, a fundraising request would need to be of brief duration, for a specific purpose and amount with clear accounting, without any pressure to participate, and without repeated requests to join in or reminders. We also ask that the member first posting a request monitor the project closely and post a brief report on funds raised, use of funds and success (or in the worst case, failure) within a reasonable time-frame after the fundraiser ends.

Two alternative, but more restrictive, approaches would be to:
(a) prohibit any fundraising requests not relating to a current or future Kiva activity, or
(b) for future fundraising for an activity which we'd already supported here at KF allow one post as a pointer to the relevant Kiva lending team board or a group on Facebook where the actual fundraiser is conducted.
 
In the case of MCC, there is an MCC lending team at Kiva, which might be the best place now to organize future fundraisers.

Your thoughts, members? The moderating team thanks you in advance.

--Diane (for the moderating team: Peter, Kerry, Wolfgang, and Natasha)

[David2051]

I don't see any harm to fundraisers here.  Certainly MCC has received extensive support here and I see no reason why other fundraisers shouldn't get equal space.  It's easy to not follow a thread if one is not interested.  There are frequently non-Kiva appeals, such as Kickstarter or other microfinance platforms, in other venues such as the teams, etc.  I don't see that they are causing any harm.  I've never seen any of these as being guilt-trippy.  ymmv

[AccountAbility]

Since there has been such a clamor from everyone to make their opinions known, I could hardly get a word in edgewise. 

Actually I have mixed feelings about such policies.  On the one hand we could policy everything to death, eliminating much of the spontaneity that makes Kiva Friends vibrant.  On the other hand, without any restraints, the site could easily be inundated with any number of things which in and of themselves are perfectly fine but in an excessive amount can easily become detrimental.

I don't envy the job of moderators, asked to discern where "to draw the line."  Perhaps the policies could be built around a fallback concept much like the stock market having certain rules which only kick in when volume or volatility exceed some predetermined level.

Without knowing what has gone on in the background (which the moderators would know) it could be that there have already been numerous requests which have been rejected--which would indicate a need for a policy to be articulated.

I'll support your decision no matter what you end up deciding.

Dan

[YowieFreak]

...

Couldn't have said it better myself!

[KyRoamer]

I think fundraisers are out of place here. Instead, we should promote Kiva lending and donations. Let Kiva use the money donated to do more to make this a better world. I just posted a suggestion that kiva embrace in honor/memory type gifts with perhaps a small required donation.

Kiva needs our support. As wonderful as it is there is so much more that it could do if it had the funding.

So let's stay as Kiva friends and not fund raise for others.

[Visitor Number 1]

I don't see a problem as long as:
1) invitations to participate are open to everyone
2) there is no coercion to participate
3) invitations to participate are kept in a separate section on the KF site

KFs have participated in group efforts on other sites such as Donors Choose, Education Generation, and Zafen.  I don't see a reason why efforts such as these should not be allowed to continue.

[cpbailey]

Donors choose and such are merely links to fundraisers that are available in the community.  KivaFriends is not involved in collecting funds.  It is not taking a position on any fundraisers, leaving individuals to evaluate and support (or not) based upon evaluation.  There have been a number of collections of funds BY KF--including Mirembe Community College, a wheelchair for a woman, during the riots in Kenya. 

In my mind, there is a different level of duty to ensure that it is fair, just, appropriate, etc. if KF announces intent to gather funds, gives notice to people, and then gathers and distributes money.

It seems that the question at hand is when KF is actively involved in a fundraiser--what is the role KF should take?  What lines should be drawn?

Colette

[David2051]

Donors choose and such are merely links to fundraisers that are available in the community.  KivaFriends is not involved in collecting funds.  It is not taking a position on any fundraisers, leaving individuals to evaluate and support (or not) based upon evaluation.  There have been a number of collections of funds BY KF--including Mirembe Community College, a wheelchair for a woman, during the riots in Kenya. 

In my mind, there is a different level of duty to ensure that it is fair, just, appropriate, etc. if KF announces intent to gather funds, gives notice to people, and then gathers and distributes money.

It seems that the question at hand is when KF is actively involved in a fundraiser--what is the role KF should take?  What lines should be drawn?

Colette

This isn't how I understood the original question that was raised.

[snip]We've been asked to provide a statement of how KF would react to future fundraisers. We would appreciate your input so we are sure to develop a fundraising policy that respects and reflects the wishes and interests of KF members. How would you like KF to approach future fundraising requests, for MCC and other projects which may be suggested?[snip]

So far, we have basically agreed that to be considered for approval for exposure on KF, a fundraising request would need to... [snip]

I have understood there to be a long standing requirement that mentioning a fund raiser required moderator approval without any active involvement by KF.  My feeling is that people should be able to point out fundraiser that others might be interested to support.  There probably should be some rules about how often one can mention them, etc. but I do not think moderator approval should be required to mention a fund raiser.  I think fundraisers run by KF, like those for MCC are probably a different matter altogether and should be treated differently.  The work required to make a KF run fundraiser successful is certainly not something that should be under estimated.

Perhaps the moderators can clarify what they had in mind?

[wind5001]

It is a tough call, and I do think the moderators are put in a difficult position when navigating competing applications for fundraisers.

I do believe fundraisers on KF should remain possible, simply because I have come to believe that they are one of the finest features, bringing out the best in Kivafriends around the world. There is only so much microfinance can do (and it is a lot), but there are things like Florence's school that need more of a boost.

I do believe it makes sense to limit the fundraising to people or groups that initially have been with a loan on Kiva (the wheelchair lady as well as Florence were Kiva borrowers). Once a fundraiser has been held for someone with a loan on Kiva, I do believe we should have the option of doing further fundraisers for them, depending on how they are going. It seems to me like a fundraiser on KF does not mean immediate success, it is rather a combination of several Kivafriends promoting and working hard for its success. This serves as a filter for fundraisers. If I do not know or trust the KF who is starting it, then I will most likely not participate.

The rules on non-pressure etc. are certainly to be enforced.

KF has always been about more than Kiva, but grounded in Kiva. Let's keep it that way.