NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

It may not seem so now, but whether people would loan money to a stranger was a pretty big question when Kiva.org started in 2005. One billion dollars later, the answer is a resounding yes.

Kiva began with the aim of opening up lending to people unable to borrow from traditional sources because they lacked credit histories or collateral or had little or no income. “It was the idea that maybe we can’t change the world, but if we could change the life of just one person it would matter,” says Premal Shah, Kiva’s CEO and a co-founder.

It has turned out to help quite a few people. Kiva recently announced that more than 2.4 million entrepreneurs, farmers, students and others have used its crowdfunding platform to collectively borrow $1 billion. As it turned out, too, those lending money—$25 at a time—weren’t taking much risk at all. Kiva’s loans have a 97% repayment rate.