Kiva Teams prompted me to make my first-ever Kiva loan to some ladies in Guatemala this morning. It was very easy to do!

Thanks for the intro, Mark!

Here is the group of women selling fruits and veggies that Bob and I both loaned to. And glad to have you on the team Bob, it's going to be a great new feature for Kiva, and fun for lenders too.

Before I join a ned.com team, which I could see as a fun and helpful exercise, I'd like to know a few things:

• What are Ned's priorities as a "team" ie can we identify a "niche"?
• Is there a limit to the number of people who can join a team, and a way to "filter" membership? (Alternatively, do we assume everyone in ned.com is welcome on a ned Kiva team?)
• How do we evaluate "success" as a team?

Thanks for the heads up, and thanks for bringing this in, Mark!

Right now, the Ned Kiva Team group info says something friendly and familiar.

>>What are Ned's priorities as a "team" ie can we identify a "niche"?<<

We can suggest a niche to team members if we desire. May be a little like the proverbial herding cats, but still a possibility.

My loans tend to drill in on three main criteria

1. I tend to lend to females (proven use the money best, and reinvest in family/community), and
2. Focus on the food/agriculture category (figuring if the loan goes bad, at least the borrower has good to eat), and
3. MFI partners that have a 4 or 5 star rating (5 being the best) so the odds are very good the loans will be repaid, and able to be reinvested.

>>Is there a limit to the number of people who can join a team, and a way to "filter" membership?<<

The teams can be open or invitation only, currently the Ned Kiva Team is open to whoever wants to join. Keeping in mind this is a private beta, so most members are coming via invitation.

>>(Alternatively, do we assume everyone in ned.com is welcome on a ned Kiva team?)<<

Seems to make sense to me. Would there be a compelling reason to make it invitation only?

>>How do we evaluate "success" as a team?<<

Open to ideas. I’d love to see $1,000,000 worth of loans by year end (impacting approximately 40,000 borrowers), but that's purely number based and in no ways measures the results of the impact of those funds.

>>Thanks for the heads up, and thanks for bringing this in, Mark!<<

You bet. Once the Kiva team feature is live out of beta and I can link to the Ned Kiva Team, I will make that be the microfinance link on the main Ned index page.

Curious about Kiva: am I correct that Kiva loans do not pay a dividend to lender? Rather, its a "social dividend" or ROI?

Lender/Kiva gets no interest or dividend on the money, Kiva loans the money interest free to (about) 100 microcredit partners around the world, who in turn (rather than borrowing from a bank, or raising funds) loan the money to borrowers at the local "standard" MFI rate. Borrower repays MFI who repays KIVA how repays Kiva lender.

Kiva makes is money mainly (for now) requesting a 10% donation per amount of money lender is loaning. Loan $500 and they request an additional $50 donation...which I always do on the first loan, and never do on reinvested funds.

MMmmmm.

My PayPal account ran out of funds...no more Kiva loans until fresh cash hits the account.

Drats.

Hm, that kind of takes the fun out of a "team" approach, no? They might reconsider:

• Recruit an active "team" (50 loans a month)
• And we'll pay you 1% loaned amount

(Conceivably, this would pay off because that 1% would get reinvested at least 50% of the time, no?)

>>Hm, that kind of takes the fun out of a "team" approach, no?<<

Huh, not sure what you mean takes the fun of the team approach.

>>Recruit an active "team" (50 loans a month) And we'll pay you 1% loaned amount (Conceivably, this would pay off because that 1% would get reinvested at least 50% of the time, no?)<<

So, for 50 loans within a team/group, the team/group (or captain) would get 1% bonus that could either be redeemed or loaned?

Not sure if Kiva could afford that, but that is a great idea for some variation of corporate support.

Seems to me that the essence of a team, let's say its raison d'etre is to accomplish a shared outcome that could not be achieved as well by any individual members.

There are lots of outcomes, and many kinds of teams, but the focus on join action is what, to me, differentiates it from an affinity group.

So, providing some kind of incentive - not necessarily profit, but say, "more money to reinvest, to augment the teams' results in its specialty area" - would make "joining a team worth the while.

Otherwise, the psychological, emotional thrill of "being part of a team" seems kind of lost to me... What am I missing?

I agree. (with the some kind of team incentive idea)

Right now they're just into the team beta itself by a matter of days, so perhaps something like that is already planned, or will evolve, or can certainly be suggested.

Some inventive teams might even find ways thru existing business relationships to bring in their own outside incentives.

Mark wrote:

Some inventive teams might even find ways thru existing business relationships to bring in their own outside incentives.

Could be, but curious: why? Each member is already a) investing and b) paying a voluntary service fee. Fine line on draining your constituency. Perhaps Kiva sees team formation as a reward of itself?

>>Perhaps Kiva sees team formation as a reward of itself?<<

I think they do kind of see it like this at this moment, kiva has a rabid "fan base".

Also, though now still in private beta, once the results are live and in the open, I think people like the openess of it...sharing with others what they have done.

edit: spelling

I like Matt Flannery's blog very much. Here's his post on the subject.

That's helpful John, thanks! I take away a few key lines: ...we are releasing a "community" section of the site...to foster a sense of community ... starting Thursday by launching Lending Teams on the site...[to] provide a way for lenders to group themselves together around certain affinities or themes... and the teams performance is statistically tracked and compared with other teams... [as a response to calls] to help serve groups like schools, churches, book clubs, etc for over two years.

I like it, makes sense. Combined with their new "iquidity" feature, sounds likes its heading in a potentially productive area. "Themes" are a risk: stove-piping loans to "popular" causes. And they are a strength: augmenting prospects for sectoral, geographic, and any other way to slice and dice "change."

And heck, if Kiva lenders want to date each other, why not make that an added benefit?!

Kiva just made another very positive change in their system. Lenders now get access to reloan (or pull out) their funds as it becomes avaliable day by day, rather than at the end of each loan term. So rather than wait 6-12 months for the money to become avail, it happens daily....pretty cool.

Yeah, that was the liquidity I was refering to. At the team level, if it were possible to bundle these into single investments of their own, that'd be great - and I'd love to know how those who repay their loans on time feel about such mechanisms - that their money is being recycled over a very short timeframe... cool!

Well, the Ned Kiva Team could (if they agreed in a discussion thread like this) decide to come together on say one type of loan per week, that perhaps met a certain criteria: female, food/ag, 4-5 star MFI.

That type of thing, if there were enough people on the team that were on board with that, the could "bundle/complete" a single loan all on their own.

I think there is some room for learning here: for example, I have a hard time believing that Kiva actually has a 100% "on time" payment rate with 95% of its MFIs. So rather than use their rating system to drive all resources to well-perfoming MFIs (see the downward spiral?) I'd like to experiment with those that might have moderate or low ratings, but look like they are doing some work that pushes the envelope ie giving out riskier loans, ie the recipients experience the family/business expense tension more acutely say, or are getting out of the "middle man" role (buying low, selling hi) and into production, or inventors, etc etc....

Could be a downward spiral, could be an upward spiral. (could help MFI's to improve their process when they see lower ratings).

In any event, I'd be into trying any type of experiment...it's how we all learn. I do know that once they rate MFI orgs 1 or 2 stars, they tend to be booted out of Kiva.

likely make them fail by diverting needed resources with which to work. unless kiva provides TA? interesting study, either way as you say...

Well, that could be.

Though Kiva works with existing MFI's and provides them with non-interesting bearing funds to loan, which the MFI would usually be borrowing and paying 10-15% interest to a traditional bank to access the money.

Just wanted to let you know that one benefit of having a Kiva team is that that's exactly how I found out about Ned.com and joined today!

Your dollar goal for the team is extraordinary!!

Good luck,

-Scott

Welcome to Ned Scott, thrilled you found us.

As to the dollar goal, that may just be me living in a fantasy world. Then again...it's good to dream big.

Mark, I thought Ned was/is your fantasy world. Thus, by extension, everything you do and say here is lived in a fantasy world...!

;P

Oh, yes welcome Scott. Delighted.