DIGITALSOULS.COM - new media art | philosophy | culture - KIVA.ORG: How to use the web to change the world

This year’s People’s Voice Webby Award winner KIVA.ORG is a truly remarkable website. With its innovative use of Web2.0 social networking and other technologies, KIVA.ORG provides a platform that connects people through lending for the sake of alleviating poverty. The well-designed and thought-out website provides a data-rich, transparent lending platform that enables individuals to lend directly to unique entrepreneurs in the developing world.

KIVA.ORG allows visitors to browse entrepreneurs’ profiles, choose someone to lend to, and then make a loan, helping a real person make great strides towards economic independence and improve life for themselves, their family, and their community.

Throughout the course of the loan (usually 6-12 months), the lender can receive email journal updates and track repayments. By leveraging web2.0 social networking technologies, KIVA.ORG is able to facilitate one-to-one connections that were previously prohibitively expensive.

Read more about KIVA.ORG

Another area in which KIVA.ORG provides and innovative solution is that of child sponsorhips. Child sponsorship has always been a high overhead business. KIVA.ORG creates a similar interpersonal connection at much lower costs due to the instant, inexpensive nature of internet delivery. The individuals featured on Kiva.org’s website are real people who need a loan and are waiting for socially-minded individuals like you to lend them money.

For more about How Kiva Works: http://www.kiva.org/about/how/

KIVA.ORG was developed by Matt and Jessica Flannery. Matt began the project late 2004 while working as a computer programmer at TiVo, Inc. In December 2005 Matt left his job to devote himself to Kiva full-time. As CEO, Matt has led Kiva's growth from a pilot project to an established online service with partnerships across the globe and millions in dollars loaned to low income entrepreneurs. Matt is a Draper Richards Fellow and a featured blogger on the Skoll Foundation's Social Edge website. He graduated with a BS in Symbolic Systems and a Masters in Analytical Philosophy from Stanford University.

Read Matt's blog The Kiva Chronicles on Social Edge.

Jessica Jackley Flannery first saw the power and beauty of microfinance while working in rural Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda with Village Enterprise Fund and Project Baobab on impact evaluation and program development. Jessica has worked in the Stanford Center for Social Innovation to launch the inaugural Global Philanthropy Forum, and at Amazon.com, Potentia Media, the International Foundation and World Vision. Jessica has spoken widely on microfinance and social entrepreneurship, and has seen microfinance at work in a variety of communities in more than 30 countries. Jessica serves on a number of non-profit boards, including Opportunity International. Jessica holds an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business with Certificates in Global Management and Public Management, and a BA in Philosophy and Political Science from Bucknell University.

For more about the people behind KIVA.ORG, visit: http://www.kiva.org/about/people/

DigitalSouls.Com congratulates Kiva.org, Jessica and Matt Flannery and their team on their much deserved recognition as the 2008 People’s Choice Webby Award winner.

More on the 2008 Webby Awards

Visit KIVA.ORG at: http://www.kiva.org/

"KIVA.ORG is an outstanding achievement of enlightened and socially engaged website development. Bravo!"

Holger ‘H-Ray’ Heine
Editor/Publisher
DIGITALSOULS.COM