1. Team 5 Andrew Bennett, Lawrence Davis, Caleb McCrary, & Josh Chumley

2.  Kiva.org was started in October of 2005 by Matt Flannery and Jessica Jackley  The couple’s initial interest started in 2003 when they attended a lecture given by Muhammad Yunus on Microfinance  Their journey to help people led them to Africa where they interviewed entrepreneurs about the troubles of starting a business  They discovered that a lack of access to funds was a common theme  Returning from Africa, they began developing a plan for a microfinance project that would become Kiva.org  Kiva is run by a team with experience in business, microfinance, and technology  “Kiva” means unity in the Swahili language

3.  The mission is to connect people, through lending, for the sake of alleviating poverty  Kiva empowers individuals to lend to an entrepreneur across the globe. By combining microfinance with the internet, Kiva is creating a global community of people connected through lending.  Microfinance - a general term to describe financial services to low-income individuals or to those who do not have access to typical banking services.

4.  People are by nature generous, and will help others if given the opportunity to do so in an accountable way  The poor are highly motivated and can be very successful when given an opportunity  By connecting people, we create relationships beyond financial transactions, and build a global community expressing support and encouragement of one another

5.  Dignity: Kiva encourages partnership relationships as opposed to benefactor relationships. Partnership relationships are characterized by mutual dignity and respect.  Accountability: Loans encourage more accountability than donations where repayment is not expected.  Transparency: The Kiva website is an open platform where communication can flow freely around the world.

7.  Around $170 million have been loaned and around 230K loans have been funded  121 active field partners that help 208 countries  Nearly 80% of loans are made to female entrepreneurs  Current Repayment rate is 98.95%  Average loan per lender is $218.11 (includes reloaned funds)  Average loan per entrepreneur is $381.37