A new mechanism has been established to help regular people as well as investors donate small amounts of money to the energy project of their choice. Kiva.org has established a platform, dubbed crowdfunding, so that anyone with an internet connection can make a loan as little as $25 to their selected borrower/project.
Kiva’s community of 900,000 individual lenders are crowdfunding more than $2.2 million in loans per week and a total of $420 million since the nonprofit’s founding in 2005. These small loans have helped more than one million borrowers in 65 countries start and grow businesses, go to school, improve their homes, buy clean energy products, and more. And with Kiva’s repayment rate of 98.9%, lenders are able to relend their money again and again, or withdraw it from the system.
Kiva’s lenders have crowdfunded green loans for more than 2,600 people in 21 countries. Green loans are used by borrowers for installing solar lighting systems, purchasing clean cookstoves, distributing renewable energy products in isolated regions, making household improvements to reduce energy costs and consumption, and implementing sustainable agricultural practices. Each of these loans were crowdfunded, $25 at a time, by 57,000 Kiva lenders from 91 different countries; proof of a sustainable model and a compelling mission shared around the world.
“Our environment is a shared public trust belonging to everyone, the responsibility to protect that trust is also shared,” said Premal Shah, President and co-founder of Kiva. “We can take steps to protect our environment by changing our own behavior, but the reality is that clean renewable energy is out of reach for the vast majority of those who need it most. Now, with crowdfunding, we have the opportunity to come together to support a cause that affects all of us, one microloan at a time.”
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