Using Technology to Disrupt Poverty

Original Post: May 20, 2009

Last week I spent the better part of three days in Palo Alto at the annual meeting for the National Center of Women in Technology (NCWIT). Over the three days, the speaker that inspired me most was Jessica Jackley, co-founder of Kiva, the world’s first micro-lending marketplace for the working poor.

Kiva works by connecting entrepreneurs in the developing world with lenders (people like you and me) who provide interest-free loans via the Kiva.org website. Millions of dollars in loans are provided each month to the working poor in over 50 developing countries.With a loan of only a few hundred dollars, the working poor are able to invest in a self-staining future. Examples of types of investments include the purchase of a cow to plow land, or purchase of materials to build a fruit stand.

Jessica emphasized four principles that have been key to Kiva’s success.

Know Your Mission – Kiva’s mission is to connect people through lending for poverty alleviation.

Stay Open – Kiva adopted crowdsourcing, which opened up the opportunity for volunteers to log onto Kiva’s site and translate people’s stories from all over the world. Everyone can give in their own way.

Iterate – Kiva took a simple idea and launched in 2005 with a site that consisted of only three pages. Today Kiva offers individual stories and profiles in many languages and provides a myriad of ways for people to build community and contribute.

Focus on Individuals – Kiva empowers individuals on both sides of the equation.Borrowers gain hope for a better, self-sustaining life, while the site gives lenders tools to easily build lending teams and spread the word about Kiva organically.  Kiva’s intense focus on individuals also allows it to have a loan pay-back rate in the high 90s.

Kiva’s growth has been phenomenal and these principles can certainly be applied to for profit and non-profit businesses alike.

It is amazing how the areas of microfinance and social good have become so sexy while traditional businesses are struggling to stay alive. It’s a tough time for a lot of us, but overall, perhaps the massive disruption of wealth will help us appreciate the important things in life, and replace our emphasis on wealth with that of meaning.Technology has powerfully transformed the way we live, breathe and do business. Why not harness technology as Kiva does — to disrupt poverty and advance social good.  That’s what I call having your cake and eating it too.