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Can $25 Really Change Someone's Life?
Mission Committee and Confirmation Class to Invest in ''Micro-Capitalism'' Loan Project Update
by Dave Hedrick

In these times of crashing investment values, failing banks and insurance companies, business closings and job losses, it is good to know that capitalism is still alive and doing quite well, thank you, in the world that Jesus calls us to care most about� the world of the working poor who want a better life for themselves and their families and neighbors.

Mission Committee Update on Our Lending through KIVA

Kiva� is the Swahili word for ��sharing��. Five years ago in San Francisco, some young executives in the �Dot-Com� industry saw the potential of using the power of Internet technology to bring together the financial capital of lenders in developed countries with entrepreneurs in small businesses in underdeveloped countries and Kiva.org was founded. (www.Kiva.org) Loans of as little as $25 are pooled, then are made and administered through �micro-capitalist� lending organizations serving the borrower�s community in a third world country. Kiva carefully vets and monitors the performance of these agencies, ensuring usury or diversion does not occur, and that loans are administered fairly and with the due diligence of a fiduciary.

Our congregation began lending through Kiva in November, 2007. Waterville First Congregational Church, UCC, through its Mission Committee, has paid into Kiva.org from member contributions and the proceeds of the 2007 Spring Flower Sale a total cash sum of $502.50 to fund loans of $25 - $50 to fifty-three entrepreneurs in twenty-five Third World Countries. Using loan repayments in a revolving loan fund at Kiva.org we have leveraged this $502.50 to finance $1,400.00 in loans and to donate (as a percentage of loans made) $77.50 to Kiva.org for its operating overhead.

Of the $1400 loaned out, as of 10/9/2010, a total of $944.00 has been paid back by 32 borrowers and, except for a current $4.76 held as a credit on our account at Kiva.org, it all has been re-loaned. No loans are in default (that is we have lost no money). Balance of outstanding loans to be repaid is $451.24, of which a total of $86.63 is past due from six borrowers for one or more months.

In the Fall of 2007, the Mission Committee of First Congregational Church determined to use monies earned in its Spring Plant Sale earlier that year to make small �micro-capital� loans to third world entrepreneurs through Kiva.org, a San Francisco-based Internet Website that uses the power and speed of Internet communications to publish the needs for loans of entrepreneurs in the Third World and then aggregate the contributions of lenders in the developed countries of North America and Europe to fund loans through carefully vetted micro-capital lending agencies in the borrower�s country.

Typical loan contributions we have made through Kiva.org are for sums of $25 to $50 dollars. As the loan repayments are made, and as congregation members have contributed to our available funds for lending, we have reinvested our funds in new businesses and established a revolving loan fund.

As of mid-March, 2010, First Congregational Church of Waterville, Maine has loaned a total of $875 dollars to 32 small businesses around the world. Twenty-one of those businesses have repaid their loans in full. Nine other loans are making payments on schedule and two are in delinquent (behind in repayment schedule) due to circumstances beyond the borrowers control. Altogether, $746.42 has been repaid to our revolving loan account. We currently have $257.58 held as a credit balance at Kiva.org -- which will be lent to new borrowers soon to be selected by the Mission Committee. The following table is a listing of the loans in our Kiva.org portfolio.

If you would like to recommend a business to the Mission Committee for a loan, you will find many deserving loan applicants at http://www.kiva.org/lend. You may email your recommendation to the Mission Committee Dave Hedrick [email protected]. Why not ask your children or grandchildren to help you select a business to lend to?

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