October 16, 2009
Kiva Revamps How It Explains Itself to Users
By David Roodman Tags: Kiva
In response to my post of two weeks ago, Kiva yesterday overhauled the page on kiva.org that explains how Kiva works. Matt Flannery, Kiva’s CEO and co-founder, tweeted:
Spent afternoon with Jeremy, Gerard and Premal making the site more transparent: http://www.kiva.org/about/how
To see what it looked like before yesterday, visit the GiveWell blog’s striking apposition of two images. The first is the old “How Kiva Works” page. The second is from a 2007 Kiva brochure that explains to microcredit lenders how Kiva works, with a different diagram. (Holden Karnofsky of GiveWell got that image from Tim Ogden of Philanthropy Action, who got it from me, who got it from Jeff Raderstrong of Gumball University.)
As I commented on Tim’s post, what I found interesting about the second image is that it shows that Kiva has been capable for at least half its history of explaining how it works, clearly and accessibly. That Kiva showed a different picture on its web site therefore reflected a choice, not just an accident caused by scrambling to keep up with its growth.
Check out the new page. It’s quite a transformation. I’m impressed with its precision and transparency. I do wonder whether Kiva can shorten it. The second image mentioned above seems to tell the same story more simply. Easy for me to say. And the site, like nearly all microcredit sites, remains less than clear about the diversity of microcredit’s uses and impacts. Not all Kiva borrowers are entrepreneurs, for example, nor empowered by microcredit, nor lifted out of poverty.
But the bottom line here is that Kiva has made a quick and long stride toward keeping Matt Flannery’s promise of more transparency. I think Flannery’s response to my criticism blended grace, humility, and quiet confidence. The world would be a much better place if all charities, all organizations for that matter, were as open and responsive to criticism as Kiva has been. I trust the Kiva folks will keep refining. I will visit them today.
October 17, 2009 at 2:18 pm
I may ask a question from Flannery and David,
How Kiva ensures that the PO has disbursed the loan to the same client and not to any other.While POs also taking loans from different donors for the same clients but utilize one. They are using rest of money for their personal businesses.And the second question is having Kiva started demand from the all POs, regarding the loan registration under the central banks of the countries of the POs.
Best,
Farhat.
November 9, 2009 at 12:13 pm
Keep up the good work. Here’s a copy of my note to Kiva this morning:
I was surprised and disappointed to learn from reading the New York Times that you’re like many other charities; you betray people’s generosity and trust by not being completely open in how you describe your activities. I understand the importance of marketing but I felt duped to learn that my contributions may not directly impact the individuals that I select at kiva.org. You may indeed be helping these needy individuals but it’s apparent that the specific loans go to the micro-credit institutions and that the entire front-end of your website is designed as a slick presentation to elicit sympathy, not connect individual entrepreneurs with lenders. I thought I was sophisticated enough to detect misrepresentation, regrettably I was not. I’m further embarrassed by the fact that I’ve encouraged others to contribute, based on a false impression that you appear to have created deliberately. In future my charitable contributions will be more carefully considered through other institutions.
Jerry McIntosh
Cc: New York Times