The Rss Approach To Kiva Lending

A lot of people have been asking me to let them know when loans from my MFI, Ahon sa Hirap, Inc. (ASHI) go live on Kiva.

First the process. The development officer, loan officer, Kiva Coordinator or a Kiva Fellow meets the Borrower, we fill out a profile and take their picture. Then we enter the information and upload the picture to a Partner Admin tool developed by Kiva. The profile goes through a translation tool Kiva made and has to be approved. This is why the loans are uploaded instantaneously like Journals. The loan goes live. It's usually funded within 24-48 hours. This is a tight turnaround.

So how do you keep up? I suggest subscribing to a RSS feed of a group of borrowers, an MFI or something that appeals to you.

That way they come straight to you and you can jump on making a loan the way you would jump to buy something on Woot or SteepandCheap.

Take ASHI for example. Here are all of their current loans in fundraising mode on Kiva.

Here is the RSS feed. Simply subscribe and 1, 2, 3 - you're in know.

Here's looking at you Lenders!