Kiva receives $500,000 grant from Chevron

As part of its California Partnership initiative, Chevron Corporation has awarded a one-year $500,000 grant to Kiva to assist with operational needs across the organization. The primary use of the grant will be to expand and improve the Kiva platform to economically empower individuals in the U.S. and around the world.

The partnership came about through mutual participation in the 2009 Women’s Conference where Chevron pledged to match $100,000 in Kiva loans. The partnership has since grown into a grant that will enable Kiva to make much needed investments in engineering and microfinance partnership staff across the organization. These investments will not only strengthen Kiva globally, they will also help Kiva reach many more partners and entrepreneurs in an effort to meet our goal of 400,000 total borrowers by the end of 2010.

We also look forward to helping Chevron, California’s largest company, get its employees involved in volunteer and micro-lending opportunities.

We are grateful for the support of businesses like Chevron, which help us support our infrastructure and continue to grow Kiva. Thanks to their help, we’re able to focus on the important things – like empowering individuals to lend to entrepreneurs around the world in an effort to alleviate poverty.