Artists for Change
As some of you know, I’m a big supporter of Kiva, an organization that facilitates loans to small business owners around the world. In the past, I’ve asked people to sign up to encourage me to do things like create free printable countdowns, and add my address as the person who led them to the site, so they’ll show up on my Kiva lender page.
This week, I discovered that Kiva has created a community feature called lending teams—so, I’ve created one called Artists for Change, open to artists of all disciplines. If you’re a member of Kiva, you can join the team, and whenever you make a new loan, you have the option of adding that loan to the team listing. I love visual representations—and this was a really easy way to create a visual way to show what a difference artists can make when they band together.
I started us off this morning by making two new loans. I hope Artists for Change will grow, and will make many, many loans in the future. I know we have the ability to make the world a better place when we work together.
Aug 29th, 2008 at 1:55 pm
Hi Lisa- I would like to join, but I didn’t see any of your previous posts about Kiva (I admit, I read GMS the way I read all my favorite blogs; sporadically). Could you contact me with how to list you as my referral when I sign up? Thanks!
Aug 29th, 2008 at 2:00 pm
@Betsi:
Sign up at Kiva, and log in.
Go to this page, and enter my email address, which you should know if you’re a subscriber to my weekly newsletter.
Aug 29th, 2008 at 11:00 pm
Hey, thanks for creating the artists team. That’s cool. I’m a fan of Kiva also and have a couple of loans out. It’s a great cause, and especially since I’ve been to a number of third-world countries in Central America and have seen first hand how people live. It feels good to help some of these enterprising ladies (I like to support women working to make ends meet. They have so fewer opportunities than men most of the time, IMHO.)
Aug 30th, 2008 at 5:50 pm
I am a HUGE fan of Kiva and I’m so pleased you created this team! I try really hard to loan to artists specifically when possible and I just made a loan yesterday to Pakistani women embroiderers.
Thanks for doing this to spread the word of Kiva!
Aug 30th, 2008 at 11:44 pm
I love Kiva. You’re the one who turned me onto this site awile back but was so strapped for cash at the time. Thanks for the reminder! I joined the team and am making my 1st loan now. This is such a worthy cause!
Aug 30th, 2008 at 11:47 pm
I forgot to add - it’s so hard to decide who to make the loan to. My goal is to make a new loan to a different person each month.
Aug 31st, 2008 at 12:38 am
@Andrea: I always loan to women, because let’s face it, in many of the countries represented on Kiva, women have so many more obstacles to becoming successful in business.
@Carol: I also try to find artists first, but there often aren’t any listed when I loan.
@Jen: As you can see here, everyone has their own way of deciding where their loan goes. Just pick what type of activity you’d like to support. For example, I saw a lending group today that focuses on doing only agricultural loans. I tend to choose women who are doing something I also do—some sort of art, sewing, clothing, or home repair.
The important thing is just to dive in, and put your dollars to work!
Aug 31st, 2008 at 3:34 pm
Thanks for the pointer, Lisa. I’m signed up now, and I’ve joined this ever-growing group. Seems Kiva got some publicity recently or something, because there are no entrepreneurs to lend to right now! It’s frustrating, but also quite heartening to see do much giving. Nearly two million dollars lent this week according to current stats.
Aug 31st, 2008 at 5:40 pm
@Betsi: Check back at Kiva—when I peeked in just now, there were eight new loans needing funding.
Kiva was in Bill Clinton’s most recent book, and he talked about it on Oprah. Whenever they rerun that show, all the available loans immediately get funded.