Blog Post Kicks Off Row Over Transparency at Kiva

A blog post by a researcher for an international-development think tank has raised questions over where money given to the celebrated microlending Web site Kiva goes, The New York Times reports.

The nonprofit site has been widely hailed as a groundbreaking vehicle for people to loan small sums directly to entrepreneurs in the developing world, and until recently it promoted that person-to-person link on its home page. But David Roodman, of the Center for Global Development, wrote last month that Kiva users are not making direct loans to the individuals showcased on the site but instead supporting microfinance institutions, which do the actual lending.

Mr. Roodman’s post generated thousands of Twitter posts and a response from Kiva, which has collected $100-million in small loans in its four years. The site also removed the reference to lending to individual entrepreneurs on its home page, which now reads, “Kiva connects people through lending to alleviate poverty.”

Read more about Kiva in The Chronicle of Philanthropy.

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