Posts Tagged → Kiva

Join the FITE

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Earlier this month, Kiva co-launched an exciting new campaign to help empower women, together with Dermalogica and other strategic partners called JoinFITE. FITE stands for “Financial Indepence Through Entrepreneurship” and is focused on helping women worldwide start and grow a business.

The campaign has since been covered in BusinessWeek, FastCompany, and the Huffington Post.

Jane Wurwand, the 52-year-old founder of skin-care product maker Dermalogica started 25 years ago with $14,000 and built a business with customers in 87 countries and more than $200 million in annual revenue. She’s an incredible woman I’ve heard speak through my involvement with Step Up Women’s Network. She is dedicated to helping women in business and support entrepreneurship and this is an amazing partnership and campaign to highlight that commitment.

Dermalogica is donating $500,000 to help fund microloans to women through Kiva. Wurwand just stepped down as chief executive officer of Dermalogica to focus her attention on the microlending campaign. According to Jane:

It’s so authentic to our industry. Every spa and salon owner has said it feels like their story. Each of them started with a small amount of money and built their success through that. They know as a woman what it means to be financially independent.

The project will involve promotions on five of Dermalogica’s top-selling products, including skin cleansers, microfolients, and eye creams, that consumers can redeem online to contribute $1 to a Kiva loan. Wurwand hopes consumers will add to the credits with donations of their own, and aims to facilitate microloans to at least 25,000 entrepreneurs in two years. Unlike on Kiva’s main site, loans made through FITE will only go to women. When people fund a loan on the site, starting at $25, they choose what country and what industry their money goes to. Kiva will then choose the borrower and send donors e-mail updates on the entrepreneurs who receive their funds. You can check out the campaign site too, at http://joinFITE.org.

JoinFITE is inspiring a movement and I can’t wait to see where it goes! Celebrities like Geena Davis and Julia Ormond, companies like Dermalogica and Seventh Generation, and thought leaders like Isobel Coleman and Nicholas Kristof (NY Times Columnist and best-selling co-author of Half-the-Sky) have all joined forces and are competing in the joinFITE Challenge. Learn more about it at JoinFITE.org.

Take 5: Kiva Alums, Where Are They Now?


Recently named to Oprah’s Favorite Things list, Kiva is a constant in many of my business and personal relationships. Much of that is from my time as a Kiva Fellow. One of the biggest perks of being a Kiva Fellow is being associated with the other amazing people who are also Kiva Fellows. While our time together is limited, we are only together in-person during a week long training at Kiva HQ in San Francisco, we are all linked together by our shared experiences in the field around the world. There are Kiva Fellows out there doing amazing work in sustainable development, microfinance, technology, getting their masters in business or public administration and running companies.

I wanted to take a moment to share some cool projects I do know about, there are many many others. But here are five of my favorite people I met through Kiva and a quick glance of “where are they now.” Support their organizations and follow these rockstars, they are on the cutting edge of their fields and amazing people to know. I also created a list on Twitter called “Kiva Fellow” which you can follow.

1. iMentor’s mission is to improve the lives of young people from underserved communities through innovative, technology-based approaches to mentoring. Over the past ten years, iMentor has transformed over 20,000 lives including matching over 10,000 mentor-mentee pairs, and partnering with 30 NYC schools and after school programs in four of New York City’s five boroughs and programs all over the country. Hanh Tran, a Kiva Fellow in Vietnam, who recently graduated from NYU’s Wagner School of Public Service, is now working at iMentor as a Program Manager.

2. It’s hard to pick one venture of Halle Tecco’s, so I’m going to include two. First, before becoming an intern at Kiva, Halle founded YogaBear, a national 501(c)3 non-profit organization dedicated to promoting more opportunities for wellness and healing to the cancer community through the practice of yoga. Yoga teachers and studios around the country provide free services to those in the cancer community. This past year she authored with friends, including another Kiva intern Analisa Shah (a powerhouse herself), The Flexitarian Cookbook, a cookbook for carnivores and vegetarians, with recipes from chefs around the country. Proceeds from The Flexitarian Cookbook benefit Slow Food USA and Yoga Bear and can be purchased here.

3. You all know Habitat for Humanity, right? Founded in 1976 by Millard and Linda Fuller, the organization has built over 350,000 houses around the world, providing more than 1.75 million people in 3,000 communities with safe, decent, affordable shelter. Dave McMurtry, a Kiva Fellow in Libya, now serves as the Senior Vice President of Strategy for Habitat International. In his role, he travels the world to visit projects and is hard at work at new and innovative strategies to take Habitat forward. I always love hearing about his exciting travels.

4. Worldreader’s mission is to make digital books available to all in the developing world, enabling millions of people to improve their lives. Where many schools and villages lack a library because they cannot keep current books in circulation, worldreader provides an endless amount of learning with one device. Zev Lowe, a Kiva Fellow in Indonesia, leads worldreader.org’s finance and research, and supports trial development while based in Barcelona. Zev, also known as an international man of mystery, is an enigma. Worldreader is so lucky to have him.

5. Pando Projects is a nonprofit that empowers people to step up as leaders and develop new, local solutions to the problems in their communities and called “the next big thing” by Kiva CEO, Premal Shah. Milena Arciszewski (who wrote a guest blog post on The Causemopolitan this summer) is the Founder and Executive Director and has been working on Pando since she returned to the States earlier this year from a yearlong Kiva Fellowship in Bosnia, Kenya and the Philippines. Launching in 2011, they are currently looking for 10 people (age 18+) with ideas that can be executed within 3 months in the New York City area. You can find out more about submitting a project here. Milena is a true social entrepreneur. I have loved hearing about Pando from an idea she described over dinner at the Bohol Bee Farm in the Philippines to seeing it executed on the verge of launching, it’s the makings of an incredible success story.

Any Kiva Fellows Alumni reading this, please send me your updates or leave a comment below and I’ll include you in an upcoming post!

Finding The Social Entrepreneur In All Of Us

Everyone Can Be A Social Entrepreneur – Dublin Web Summit 4

Last week I had the priviledge of going to Ireland (my first time) for not one, not two, but three reasons. First, one of my clients, ezetop, is located there. I conducted a day and a half workshop with their online communications and marketing team on a wide variety of buckets we created in advance based on their needs with emphasis on how social media and online communications can help get their message across.

Next, I spoke at the Dublin Web Summit, which is where the above presentation comes from. There I spoke to the nonprofit/NGO track about finding the social entrepreneur in all of us. What does that mean? That all of us have the ability to look at a problem and find a way to solve it in an entrepreneurial way that ties in social innovation.

Last, I attended F.ounders. An invite-only event that was two nights and three days in Dublin. Everything was included from the pub crawl to dinners to panels and walking tours. 200 founders of companies got together to talk, network, learn and just be together to see what happens. It was an ambitious project and a huge success. Truly one of the best conferences I’ve ever been to, from start to finish, not a detail was overlooked.

Best part? All attendees got a “gold key” that provides a fully paid return to Ireland to futher explore business and investment possibilities in Ireland. So while I didn’t make it too far past Dublin this time around, I’m looking forward to returning soon and seeing more of the country and deepening the conversations and relationships I met while I was there.

Hope you enjoy the presentation above, I loved giving it! Thanks to Paddy Cosgrave and the whole Dublin Web Summit and Founders (#dws4 & #founders respectively on Twitter) team for a terrific experience.

Ghana On The Horizon During November

The big news continues! Last week I relaunched The Causemopolitan and can’t tell you how much it means to me the incredible response I got from people all across the globe.

This week I am excited to announce a trip that has been in the works these past few months and has finally all come together.

I’m headed to Ghana!

My partner-in-crime Taylor Davidson and I have talked a lot about the way we want to contribute in the world, and we know photos, videos and stories can have a huge impact. I also have a connection to Ghana because of the Cause It’s My Birthday series from last fall and then also Kiva has a presence there and from my time as a Kiva Fellow I have been wanting to visit other countries and field partners.

My friend, Drew Meyers, who I first met through microfinance, helped with the birthday series and is just an incredible friend and like a brother to me, is going to be in Ghana in November with his friend Dan. They are volunteering for the microfinance institution Lumana Credit as part of their around-the-world journey.

With Drew there, the connection to Lumana, and a little bit of malaria nets left to deliver from Cause It’s My Birthday, it’s just too much coming together and too big an opportunity to pass up!

Taylor and I will be joining Drew and Dan in Ghana from November 8th until the 20th. We’ll be leading a few malaria net drops with local charities and NGOs, planning a “tech day” visit around Accra including Google’s office there and few startups we found through BarCampAccra and BarCampGhana, visiting a few cooperatives, exploring the countryside and making the most of our time there.

We’re always looking to make the most of our travels, and certainly my trip to Ghana is no different – and here’s where we could use your help!

  • People to connect with — Are there people in Ghana – whether they be techies, social entrepreneurs, or just amazing individuals passionate about what they do — that are “must meets” while we’re there? If so, I would love an introduction to see if we can coordinate something with them.
  • Connections at technology companies based in or near Accra – As I mentioned, on the November 11th, we’re looking to organize a few “tech visits” in Accra.
  • Tips, tricks or otherwise about Ghana.

I can’t wait for this trip, and to share much of it with you during and after with the content we create. I’m also going to be writing about what it takes to set up a trip like this (which has been a ton of work believe me)! If there are other things I can do to help YOU, as always let me know.

Here’s to Ghana!

We Did It! Thanks To You Kiva Won $1 Million Dollars!


I’ve been a longtime supporter of Kiva, including having made hundreds of dollars worth of loans on their website for entrepreneurs worldwide and spending last summer in the Philippines as a Kiva Fellow. I am also a member of their “Social Media Dream Team” (follow my Twitter list: Kiva Dream Team) a small group that rallies and support their online campaigns. I’m so incredibly proud to announce that our latest endeavor has been a success and Kiva has won the Sam’s Club Giving Made Simple campaign and a $1 million grant.

See my original blog post entitled: Please Vote for Kiva In Sam’s Club Giving Competition!

From Kiva:

We are thrilled to announce that Kiva has won a $1 million grant through the Sam’s Club Giving Made Simple campaign. The campaign ran from April 8th to May 2nd with over 125,000 Sam’s Club members and associates placing votes for their favorite charities.

Thank you to everyone who supported Kiva throughout the campaign. We could not have won without your daily votes, outreach to friends, and participation during the Double Points Days on Twitter.

KIVA will use the $1 million grant to enhance and expand the reach of its microloan platform to generate approximately $10 million more in loans from the internet community, helping approximately 25,000 entrepreneurs in the United States and around the world.

“We are truly grateful to Sam’s Club and its members for helping Kiva win this generous grant,” said Premal Shah, president of Kiva. “Kiva’s mission is to help to connect people, through lending, for the sake of alleviating poverty in the developing world – and right here at home. This grant will enable Kiva to continue to provide the opportunity that microfinance presents to hard-working entrepreneurs in our global community.”

On behalf of our community of staff, board members, volunteers, and friends, thank you for showing your support for Kiva. We won this together!

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