Comments on: Whither Kiva?

Whither Kiva?

parmanparman — Tue, 18 Sep 2012 11:49:34 -0800

The Kiva team is now 301 members and $73,000ish of total lending. As a purely online lender pool it has maintained its position in the top five lending clubs for three-and-a-half years. It has been enshrined as the second most successful campaign for Kiva, but it has stopped growing. What could be next? Should it keep going?

The Kiva team was started as Mathowie's answer to my own bad idea in 2009 and it was a great answer. Although we've had a share of debate in the past, it has been rewarding for most. I have used the opportunity to share micro lending as a gift certificate for my cousin's Girl Scout troop to use as they would like on Kiva. Maybe micro lending as a team-based model here has run out of steam. What do you think?

By: jacquilynne

jacquilynne — Tue, 18 Sep 2012 12:03:06 -0800

I continue to redonate the same $50 I originally donated to Kiva every time I have $25 in my lending account, and I'm happy to keep doing that through the Metafilter team, but I don't really get any value out of being part of the team, so it makes no real difference to me whether it stays or goes. I don't know if the MeFi Team does stuff on Kiva or whatever, as it's not a site I visit regularly for community, I just go there and donate and leave again.So, I guess I don't really know what the value proposition is to being on a Team vs. just donating money on Kiva.

If having the Team gives you an excuse for these these occasional MeTa posts to drive up participation and drum up new donations, then I guess keep it going for that?

By: grouse

grouse — Tue, 18 Sep 2012 12:07:24 -0800

Wasn't there just a deleted thread on this last month?

By: mattbucher

mattbucher — Tue, 18 Sep 2012 12:08:19 -0800

It's "stopped growing" so it should be disbanded? Is there a problem with people being a part of the Metafilter group on Kiva? I fail to see the issue here. The total loan count is on a straight uphill curve. I vote to not disband or close the group.

By: mathowie

mathowie — Tue, 18 Sep 2012 12:11:20 -0800

Yeah, I don't know what more there is for us to do, we've put in a lot of money (I think I am constantly rotating about $300 in loans back and forth over and over again for the past few years), and the group seems to be helping people continuously.

Do you want the MetaFilter group on a leaderboard somewhere? Or to hit $100k? What is the goal that we're not meeting by having it around, because it seems like it is working perfectly fine from here.

By: ChuraChura

ChuraChura — Tue, 18 Sep 2012 12:14:15 -0800

I'm not sure I see the problem? We're still putting out loans (I'm waiting for repayment) and we were apparently 5th in growth last month?

By: ryanshepard

ryanshepard — Tue, 18 Sep 2012 12:18:15 -0800

This is a good reminder that I need to redonate my rotating $75 - some concrete goals / targets for the team might make this more interesting, though.

By: zeikka

zeikka — Tue, 18 Sep 2012 12:53:36 -0800

Thanks for the reminder to recycle my available credit. I don't really care how Mefi teams stacks up against the competition, although I find it entertaining how atheists and Christians seem to be competing for the top position.

By: pappy

pappy — Tue, 18 Sep 2012 13:10:32 -0800

Seems like it's doing reasonably well. It might benefit from additional recruitment, but I wouldn't characterize it as running out of steam. Thanks for the reminder to re-lend.

By: RainyJay

RainyJay — Tue, 18 Sep 2012 14:11:03 -0800

You've reminded me to check out my current credits and I've joined the Metafilter team. So, uh...success? Continued growth?

I think a plateau could be fine.

By: Stacey

Stacey — Tue, 18 Sep 2012 15:52:31 -0800

I'm still rotating my money on through as well, and happy to stay part of the MeFi team, and not seeing any problem. But I rarely check out the community stuff - if there's something awesome we could be doing that we're not, I'm open to suggestion on pitching in to help with the mystery awesome thing.

By: travelwithcats

travelwithcats — Tue, 18 Sep 2012 16:45:41 -0800

I have a few hundred dollars that I recycle, so I check in every month. I vote for keeping our Mefi team. Welcome # 301! We have been waiting a long time for you!

By: jwells

jwells — Tue, 18 Sep 2012 16:52:12 -0800

We don't need to be growing to do any good. I've got $200 in the mix and seem to get $25 every month or so. No need to shut anything down. We'll expand the team when it expands.

By: garnetgirl

garnetgirl — Tue, 18 Sep 2012 19:24:53 -0800

Seems to be working fine. We seem to slowly get new members, but the current members continue to relend. I vote to let things continue as they are - I keep relending my $$ as it gets repaid and another person benefits. Sounds good to me!

By: mynameisluka

mynameisluka — Tue, 18 Sep 2012 20:53:39 -0800

This just prompted me to finally make my first Kiva loan. So, thanks! I look forward to seeing my little loan do some good.

By: michaelh

michaelh — Tue, 18 Sep 2012 22:18:03 -0800

After years of hearing about it I finally visited, joined team MF and made a loan. I'm admittedly a bit pessimistic about the whole thing but the odds of accomplishing something seem much better than with the latest Kickstarter vaporware.

By: allkindsoftime

allkindsoftime — Wed, 19 Sep 2012 02:11:46 -0800

I think the team should remain as-is. Posts like this 1-2x a year should be to a) remind current team members to re-loan, and b) make newer MeFi users aware that there is a team. As long as its not more than that, it has seemed to have been fine for MeTa for the past few years, despite a few detractors.

I vote we add it to the Wiki under "Group/Social stuff" and then let it continue rolling.

By: headnsouth

headnsouth — Wed, 19 Sep 2012 06:43:43 -0800

Yeah, I don't understand why something has to continue growing and expanding in order to be valuable.

By: mediareport

mediareport — Wed, 19 Sep 2012 06:51:14 -0800

Communist.

By: Afroblanco

Afroblanco — Wed, 19 Sep 2012 09:04:29 -0800

I'm just glad I found Kiva's "keep recycling my money and leave me the hell alone" option. I swear, it was like The Gift That Keeps On Annoying You. No, I don't need to be lied to monthly about who my money's going to, and at this point, I'm no longer convinced that micro-lending is even all that charitable.

By: fixedgear

fixedgear — Wed, 19 Sep 2012 09:06:37 -0800

As a MeFi member and member if the Kiva lending team I'm voting for leave it alone. Is this a grow or die situation? Do we need to be number one on Kiva or something?

By: Julnyes

Julnyes — Wed, 19 Sep 2012 09:15:45 -0800

I just signed up with Kiva and joined the team. I'll begin loaning out funds this week. So thanks for the reminder.

By: deborah

deborah — Wed, 19 Sep 2012 10:50:01 -0800

What allkindsoftime said.

By: Kronur

Kronur — Wed, 19 Sep 2012 18:42:48 -0800

Joined and loaned (starting at the $25 small).

Instant post success; and only my very-small-number non-Ask post!

By: AgentRocket

AgentRocket — Thu, 20 Sep 2012 07:56:59 -0800

I just joined and made my first loan too. I am excited. So you've got five new members (so far) from this thread.