A Shout Out to the Super Lenders

By Tamara Sanderson, KF8, Mongolia

You know you are a Super Lender if:

A) You mark the 15^th on your calendar and know the order that repayments will be made based on MFI. You also have difficulty sleeping on the 14^th from the anticipation.

B) Your Facebook wall is filled with “[Insert Your Name] supported [Insert Foreign Name] with Kiva.org”

C) It requires multiple scrolls and next page clicks to see all the loans on your Kiva Profile

D) KivaFriends.org is your second favorite website after Kiva.org

E) Your friends and family have been recruited to Kiva in every form possible. Recruitment methods may include dinner table conversations, sending emails at check-out, lending team invitations, sending gift certificates, and even pouting until they get on their laptops to register

F) 50% of the emails in your inbox are from Kiva

G) You are reading this blog, even though you are not related to me

H) All of the above

Well, this blog is for you, Super Lenders. You have played a huge part in Kiva’s exponential growth since its launch in 2005!

After receiving my Kiva Fellows placement in Mongolia, I went online to Kiva.org and saw that the latest activity was from a woman living in Ulaanbaatar to an entrepreneur in Ulaanbaatar. I, of course, took this as a sign and quickly sent her a lender email with all my questions about Mongolia.

A few months later, I was able to meet Kimberly in person. She has lived in Mongolia the past three years, helping with the business development of a horseback riding tourist camp, volunteering with Habitat for Humanity and learning Mongolian.

When describing Kiva, she compared it to a toolbox – you can give the entrepreneurs the tools needed to succeed and can then pass it on to the next one.

Last week, she was recognized at XacBank’s Kiva publicity event, as our #1 lender, with over 100 Mongolian loans thus far. Kimberly freely floated through the audience, telling everyone about Kiva. In fact, the XacBank CEO was so impressed that he interviewed her last week for an IT position, and she has been invited to their upcoming offsite meeting.

I imagine that there are lots of “Kimberlies” out there on Kiva and want to tell you THANK YOU! You have made Kiva what it is today and have helped change the lives of the working poor.

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