Have been donating to Kiva for over 10 years. It is an easy way to make a significant change in someone else’s life. Many of us want to help others but don’t know where to start. We also worry that we don’t know where our money is going or if it is actually going to the people and not charity management. With Kiva, you can actually choose and see who you are helping. There’s a face, a story, a need. Also, these are loans and not free money. People need to pay the money back which shows how hard working they are. It also allows you to loan the repaid money, over and over again. You can start with as little as $25 (maybe even less) to change someone’s life. Try it. It’s a wonderful feeling knowing that you helped another person or group of people from all over the world. Kiva has given all of us the opportunity to make a difference in this world, please take advantage of it. You’ll be glad you did.

The developer responded to my original review which I am thankful for. I’ve updated my rating by a star because there is a way to search the way I want to. If I could do half stars I’d say it was 3.5 rather than 3 stars because it is close to 4. The issue is the disconnect between the website and the app. My saved search on the web should be available in the app without having to recreate it. I also want to customize different searches and SAVE them for later use. I would like to see the payback status and some other parity with the website come into the mobile experience. I’m curious to see how notifications are managed (e.g. will I get loan payment updates? Will I get too many notifications etc). All in all it is a step forward towards kiva’s future. I can’t wait to see the next update. Original review———I loan to specific areas of the world. I use a saved search (web version) to manage that. It filters results the way I WANT to loan. I can’t find that anywhere in the app. Instead I am presented with a wall of YOUR loan categorizations, not MINE. I love the idea of an app vs website, but I can’t use this in its current form. (A) Give me control of how I loan and (B) the ability to see loan payback status, history etc (C) ability to filter by risk rating

I can’t stop global conflict, but with Kiva I can help real people impacted by it. I can’t lift a community out of poverty halfway around the world, but I can help a collective of Mayan women start a business or help fatten up a pig in the Philippines. Kiva is a great way to create impact on wild events one person at a time, and the app makes it tremendously easy. I can browse geographic regions, loan purposes, or specific populations and target loans to causes I believe in, and the check out process on the app is even easier than on their website. Please make loans with Kiva!

I first started making Kiva loans after seeing the TED talk about Kiva about 12 years ago. By investing $25 a month, which is an amount that I can easily afford, I have helped to impact the lives of literally thousands of people all over the world! I have been able to help women buy sewing machines, small farmers, get good quality seed and support, help people in rural areas get solar power, and so much more. At first, it was slow only one loan a month. Over the years, most of the people have repaid their loans in full so now I have made over 800 loans.