I applaud your support of choice among Kiva lenders! Kiva empowers aspiring entrepreneurs by connecting them with eager lenders. Working for ACCION USA (a Kiva field partner), I’ve spent a great deal of time lately responding to negative feedback about our recent partnership with Kiva to support domestic microloans. Kiva works with field partners to administer and disburse the loans, and we were ecstatic to be able to join with such an esteemed name in the microfinance community.

Unfortunately, much of the criticism we’ve received originates from a misunderstanding of First World poverty and misinformation about our operations. As you keenly recognize, poverty does exist in the United States. Granted, much of it is typically less severe than deprivation in the Third World, but to dwell on that misses the point. To measure poverty exclusively in terms of income does not accurately represent the harsh realities faced by low income individuals. Kiva expands upon this idea with a very thoughtful post on their blog, where they detail the conclusions about their US lending program.

As this article and their summary report reveal, the claim that funds will be diverted from third world borrowers has proven false. June was a record month in foreign lending for Kiva, even as they began offering loans domestically. I admire your insights that Kiva’s domestic launch will attract more borrowers (which has proven true) and that people will diversify their lending geographically (as we have seen they do). It’s refreshing to hear such progressive thinking.

I would like to thank you again for your excellent post and your interest in domestic microlending. I encourage you to begin reading our blog and following us on Twitter (@ACCION_USA). If you have any specific questions or would like to continue to conversation please reach out to us at loan at accionusa dot org.

Sam