Dagfinn Mork

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  Dagfinn commented on the article | about 2 years ago

  My Last Word on the Kiva Controversy

  I think one may ask if Kiva would have had its success if they were as transparent as they now are from the beginning.  Take a look at MyC4, they practice a true person-2-person operation where the entrepreneur have to wait until it is funded by the lenders and first then get the funds.  It is a considerable smaller operation, the question is would I lent if Kiva told me the way it was to start with and for me the answer would have been no - herein lies the lack in transparency for my part and why I stopped as an active lender, the trust simply took to hard a hit.

  
  

  I belong to a minority I guess that believe Kiva could have made a sustainable impact if they took a holistic approach and not focused on money alone.  The capital lost is the true person-2-person bond between people able to lend and entrepreneurs in need.  I do think to wait an extra month and provide the direct link between the two groups that Kiva and MFI's seek to cater to is much more valuable than today understood. 

  
  

  If one look at Kiva journals and at Kivafriends one may observe there is a great void of engagement not being exploited as the personal connection are not well supported.  If Kiva would give that aspect consideration they would unravel new and sustainable growth potential that would truly set them apart.

  
  

  In your article you state they "they're proactively seeking to rebuild trust with lenders", I find that to be positively a false statement.  For many months people have written about their concerns on Kivafriends.org and to Kiva without getting any positive notice from Kiva.  This is a classic reactive change now brought about after public exposure growing into more traditional news media.  If Roodman did any research or just read himself up on Kivafriends I do not know - for sure for that community he kicked in an open door.

  
  

  And as you write yourself "I worry that the donor community has become addicted to an illusion" - precisely as Kiva for months chose not to listen to its core lenders that looked out for their interest.

  
  

  I think that the time have come to agree with Saint Augustine that almost everything is neither black nor white but have rays of grays in them - that goes for Kiva and for me as a lender.