Posted by nallappa on June 29, 2010 · Leave a Comment
Hi Everyone!
I hope you are all enjoying your summer and congratulations to those of you who recently graduated! Its been awhile since we have sent a newsletter, but Campus Kiva has quite a few exciting projects going on this summer and we expect to have several new resources and opportunities to provide chapters in the fall. Starting this month, we will begin sending monthly newsletters again so be sure to stay tuned for updates!
Welcome New Interns!
Just this month, the Kiva office in San Francisco welcomed two exceptional Campus Kiva interns. Sunny Seelamsetty and Naveen Nallappa (Campus Kiva’s former webmaster) will be working hard for the rest of the summer to make sure that chapters have all the resources they need to get going in the fall. If you have any questions about resources or ideas for programs you’d like to see incorporated, feel free to contact either of them at sunil@kiva.org and naveen@kiva.org.
Campus Kiva International
As you may remember, last fall Campus Kiva launched its international division with the help of two Campus Kiva officers who were studying abroad. Over the past year, Esha Chhabra and Sasha Anderson were able to develop a significant number of contacts at universities across the globe and with their help we have 5 chapters in Canada, and chapters in Hong Kong, Kenya and England. Here is what the Campus Kiva chapter at McGill University in Canada had to say:
“Student Network for Economic Development is a student-run club at the McGill University Kiva Campus Chapter. In the past semesters, we have partnered with other student clubs, local universities, community centers and microfinance institutions in Montreal, a memorable example being a joint seminar with a local French University, HEC.
However, in this last year, we came across a unique opportunity to raise funds for Kiva by helping aspiring entrepreneurs in our own community of Montreal. We collaborated with the South Asian Women’s Community Center, which works towards empowering women from immigrant, refugee or low-income backgrounds. We were particularly involved in their project to create a group catering business, in order to foster economic independence among the women. Learning from multi-dimensional approaches to microfinance, we were inspired to volunteer in giving English and French lessons and entrepreneurial workshops, as well as selling their baked goods on campus. At the end of the year, we held a vibrant Bollywood event, which included Indian cooking lessons, followed by a movie and a South Asian meal catered by the women. In sharing our profits, we were able to support their investment in industrial pots for the catering business, as well as make microloans for Kiva. We have gained a very meaningful experience, in being a part of the process of watching entrepreneurs flourish, given the tools of financial support and local networking. In connecting the global and the local, we learned that raising funds for Kiva can start off with some creativity in our own backyards!
Thank you Kiva for all of your support and for inspiring us to be innovative!”
If you have any ideas or if you are interested in working with one of the international chapters, please contact Sasha (ander163@mail.chapman.edu) or Esha (ec2440@gmail.com).
New Materials
This summer, we will be developing more resources to help chapters get started and to ensure that they are sustainable. We have updated our ideas kit and our starter kit for professors and those are attached in this email. Additionally, we are working to create a media kit which will include information on how to write a press release and on how to host an event that will get attention both on and off campus. Our team will also be creating a kit that will help chapters secure funding through grants and other avenues. Finally, we will be making a short introductory video and a new powerpoint presentation that chapters will be able to show at meetings or in classes. If you have ideas for any other materials that you think would be valuable, please let Sunny know (sunil@kiva.org)
One Hen
Last fall, Campus Kiva partnered with One Hen (www.onehen.org) to provide opportunities for chapters to teach about microfinance in elementary school classrooms. We launched the program at a very limited number of schools and in the fall we will be prepared to offer this program to all of our chapters. We have developed lesson plans and we will be able to fully assist participating chapters as they get started. We will be sending the starter kit next month, so stay tuned!
Belmont University: Integrating Kiva into the First Year Curriculum
Belmont University, located in Nashville, TN is a small liberal arts school with a big idea on how to educate their students about microfinance. This fall,Belmont will be the first school ever to completely integrate microfinance and Kiva lending into their first year curriculum. They will be lending each of their students $50 to lend over Kiva, and those students will have to raise enough money to match that initial loan over the course of the year. At the end of their first year, the students will return the school’s loan so the next class of students can use it. Additionally, students are required to take a first year seminar which will discuss microfinance related topics and issues. We look forward to launching this project and cannot wait to see other schools follow Belmont’s lead!
Discussion Boards and the Chapter Network
Because of how large the Campus Kiva network is, we have always struggled to provide ways for chapters to communicate with one another about their thoughts, experiences, and ideas. Over the summer, we will be modifying the Campus Kiva website to allow greater communication between chapters. Additionally, we will be partnering with MFI connect, an online microfinance discussion site, to provide a better forum for discussion. The link to the Campus Kiva portal is: http://www.mficonnect.com/group/campuskiva. We look forward to seeing some of your posts on the site!
We Want Your Feedback!
Since we are working really hard to make Campus Kiva serve the needs of its chapters, we want to know your thoughts. Please help us make the program better by taking this quick survey: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/V5XWDMF
Best,
Morgan Lucas
Director, Campus Kiva
Morgan@kiva.org
Posted by nallappa on June 18, 2010 · Leave a Comment
Please visit MFI Connect for our discussion page.
Posted by echhabra on November 2, 2009 · Leave a Comment
Hi Everyone,
We want to remind you that the first annual Educational Community Web Summit will be hosted by Campus Kiva and High School Kiva this Friday, November 6th, 2009. We are excited to announce that we will be joined by Kiva’s President, Premal Shah, and Jonathon Stalls, who will be walking from Colorado to Maine in support of Kiva.
There will be a conference call portion of the summit, which will take place from 10:00am-11:30am PST, where speakers will be taking questions from the audience. Following the call, there will be a half hour series of videos submitted from chapters and microfinance partners.
In conjunction with the conference, Campus Kiva will be launching its brand new website (www.campuskiva.org), which will feature a discussion forum to continue the international educational dialogue about Kiva and microfinance.
The entire Kiva community is welcome to participate in order to learn more about Campus Kiva and High School Kiva.
RSVP is required to join the call. If you would like to participate please contact Josephine D’Allant at Josephine@campuskiva.org for the call in number.
We hope you will join us on November 6, but if you are unable to make it, we will be releasing a copy of it so stay tuned!
Posted by echhabra on October 28, 2009 · Leave a Comment
LutherKiva was created by an inspiring mix of Luther students, faculty, staff, and even an unidentified mystery person. In 2007, at a panel discussion on “fair trade” sponsored by SEEDS (Students Engaging in Economic Development through Solidarity), Professor Brett Johnson mentioned microlending as a tool for poverty alleviation. The next day Brett received an email from SEEDS co-leader, Carl Westphal ‘08, asking for the name of the microlending website that an audience member mentioned the night before. Brett didn’t even remember the comment. The next day Brett read the New York Times and found an op-ed by Nicholas Kristof promoting microlending through Kiva.org. He quickly emailed the SEEDS list asking if anyone knew about Kiva.org. Katy Fielder ‘08, said she had written a paper on Kiva.org for Professor Steve Holland’s course on Global Hunger. Katy shared her knowledge of and excitement about Kiva at the next SEEDS meeting. Katy’s talk inspired SEEDS to organize a silent auction of artwork created by SEEDS’ members to raise funds for microlending. With over $300 in proceeds, SEEDS started microlending!
Katy and Brett then led a presentation on “Putting Your Money Where Your Heart Is: Microlending andKiva.org” at the 2008 Peace Prize Forum–where we were inspired by Nobel Peace Prize winner, Muhammad Yunus, for his microlending work with the Grameen Bank (Bangladesh). A group of students came back energized to bring microlending to Luther. After unsuccessfully trying a few different routes to have Luther College directly fund the project, LutherKiva unveiled the “$10K for Kiva” campaign to raise $10,000 to allow Luther students to make loans for “free.” Over 150 loans have been made thus far!
The most exciting part of the first year of LutherKiva was the visit by Kiva-co-founder, Jessica Jackley to Luther in February 2009 (generously funded by the Estrem Endowed Program for Entrepreneurial Studies). Fundraising successes included the Geography Challenge ($600)–where students, faculty, and staff (and local 7 year-old Ben Johnson) illustrated their abilities at Traveler IQ Challenge. Other successful fundraisers included a letter to faculty and staff, Brett playing guitar around town, and Koins for Kiva. Most importantly, the student congregation has twice decided to donate some of the proceeds from the graduation baccalaureate service to LutherKiva. This brought us to the $5,700 mark for the “$10K for Kiva” campaign. Let’s have a great 2nd year at Luther!
Learn more at: https://sites.google.com/a/luther.edu/kiva/
Posted by echhabra on October 24, 2009 · Leave a Comment
During the 2008-2009 school year, MIB grew from a starter organization to a legitimate source of education on campus. By the end of the year, MIB had accumulated a revolving fund of $2,000 through the help of students, professors, and alumni. With sturdy financial backing, MIB loaned money to approximately twenty i
ndividual entrepreneurs and groups spanning from Africa to North America. Of all the loans given, only one entrepreneur has defaulted. In addition to lending money, MIB has devoted much of its time to educating the campus, most recently through a panel discussion entitled, “Microfinance: Developing Paths to Sustainability”, which featured four esteemed Bucknell professors from different fields overlapping in microcredit in the US and abroad. The panel discussed the pros and cons of microfinance, where it has been most successful and why, and other methods which may be more effective. Considering 2008-2009 was MIB’s first year up and running, we believe it was a tremendous success, the first of many to follow!
