PayPal Stories Archive

A former child bride leading a weaving  business to build a better future for her sons, a salon owner in Pittsburgh fighting through her own personal tragedy to help others fight theirs, a Cambodian refugee building a new identity as a San Francisco business owner – these are the stories that drive us at Kiva, a non-profit organization with a mission to connect people through lending to alleviate poverty.

 

Financial health is a universal goal, and at Kiva, we work with lenders across the world to make it an accessible reality. We believe the promise of financial freedom to transform lives and economies is not just in the hands of governments and humanitarian organizations, but also in the hands of everyday people like you and me. We can ignite significant positive change by lending as little as $25 to help crowd-fund a loan for someone to jumpstart their small business, begin their education, increase their crop yields, or access clean energy solutions.

 

Today, Kiva’s growing global community of 1.4 million lenders crowd-funds $2.5 million in loans per week. Visitors to Kiva.org can browse through individual profiles and stories and choose who they want to support with a loan of $25 or more. Borrowers funded through Kiva have a 98 percent repayment rate, so the money you lend is truly a loan, not a donation. As the loan is paid back, you can relend that same money over and over again, and continue to feed the cycle of financial health.

 

The idea is to support financial health and opportunity for people no matter where they are – a value we share with PayPal -- because talent is in every neighborhood and town across the world. But, while talent is universal, we know opportunity is not.

 

As you reflect on your own financial health this month, we encourage you to think about the power of connected capital and the impact you can make as a lender on Kiva.org. Whether you’re driven by education, clean energy, entrepreneurism or the arts, we have a borrower looking for support in that field. Take a look.