Kiva founder Jessica Jackley proves that small loans can have a big impact on world poverty

Kiva.org founder Jessica Jackley has long been dedicated to using her business and entrepreneurial know-how for a good cause.

Kiva is the world’s first person-to-person micro-lending Web site, which means that anyone with Internet access can log on to the site, select a small-business entrepreneur in a developing country and loan that specific person money through PayPal.

Kiva’s microfinance field partners, which are screened and ranked by Kiva, then disburse the loan to the specified individual. Borrowers repay their loan throughout time and post updates on the site about their progress.

Once the loan is repaid, lenders may withdraw their money from Kiva, re-lend to a new entrepreneur or donate it to Kiva to help cover operational expenses.  

The entrepreneurs are hand-picked by Kiva staffers and interviewed personally so their stories and pictures can appear on the site.

Jackley’s vision for Kiva has always been about more than giving money – the company is interested in the individual stories behind each entrepreneur in need. The borrower may be a popcorn seller in Samoa, a hairdresser in Iraq or a bicycle repair man in Ecuador – all real-life examples that Jackley showed when she visited IU on Sept. 24. It is vital to the Kiva mission that lenders know not just where their money is going but also to whom.

“The best thing we can give each other is our own genuine story,” Jackley said.

Jackley has used the knowledge she acquired as a political science and philosophy student at Bucknell University as well as her MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business to propel her company to one of the most successful and inspiring poverty-elimination initiatives today.

“I studied philosophy and political science because my ambition was to help others and to understand how the world works,” Jackley said. “I thought business was about making money and being selfish.”

Her words were met by hearty laughter from the many business students in attendance as she went on to describe the genuine importance of groups like IU’s Trockman Microfinance Initiative, which presented the event and works to provide a better understanding of how microfinance can help the global humanitarian effort.  

“It is very useful for business students to learn of the possibility of social entrepreneurs,” business professor Craig Holden said. “It is another potential outlet for their business skills that might have huge benefits to society.”  

Kiva began in March 2005 out of that same spirit, when Jackley wanted to combine her desire to help those in need with an effective platform for lending them the money they need to lift themselves out of poverty.

She told the IU crowd of the combination of “fear and fascination” that she felt when she was taught in Sunday school that the poor would always be a part of society. After hearing a lecture at Stanford by Nobel Prize-winning economist Muhammad Yunus years later, she began feeling less “fear” and more “fascination,” empowered that she could do more than feel guilty or helpless for those less fortunate and take action to help them.

“It’s Jessica’s combination of expertise and experience in the field that makes her an effective speaker and leader,” said junior Kristy Anderson, president of Trockman. “She’s passionate about this, and that affects a lot of people.”