This is what it means to be totally committed to your mission…
Yesterday, Garrett Cooper and I had the pleasure of hearing a talk by Jessica Jackley, co-founder of Kiva.org (and Pittsburgher by birth and upbringing).
Kiva is a fascinating organization and just about my favorite example of social networking. Kiva is a microlender. That is, they facilitate small loans to people in developing countries (soon in the U.S.) to help them build businesses and become 
self-sufficient. Unlike the typical microlender, however, Kiva is not the source of the capital for these loans – you and I are!
On Kiva’s website, www.kiva.org, stories and photographs of individual borrowers and prospective borrowers are posted. You or I then go to Kiva and select the person or group that we want to support. We lend as little as $25, Kiva aggregates our money with other lenders, and – Voila! – a new business is launched. And when the money gets paid back, as it usually does, we can pick our next recipient. $25 at a time, and in just 4 years, Kiva has passed over $62 million of loans to the working poor the world over.
Here’s Kiva’s mission: to connect people through lending for the sake of alleviating poverty.
Read that again. That is a great mission statement. Clear, succinct, specific. No vagaries here. What do they do? Connect people. How do they do it? Through lending. Why? For the sake of alleviating poverty.
Some time ago, a company came to Kiva and offered them $10 million of CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) money. Kiva asked them what they intended. Were they going to distribute the money to their employees so that all of them could log onto Kiva’s website and join as lenders? No, the company just wanted to give Kiva a check for Kiva to lend out. So Kiva referred back to its mission statement. $10 million could alleviate a lot of poverty. $10 million could provide for a lot of lending. But a $10 million check from a corporation wouldn’t connect people.
So Kiva said, “No, thank you.”
Let me repeat that. Kiva, a nonprofit less than 5 years old, turned down a $10 million contribution because it didn’t fit precisely with their mission.
Would you have that much courage in your organization?
This is what being truly committed to mission really means.
I’m planning to join Kiva’s network of lenders. Wouldn’t you like to? www.kiva.org
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May 1, 2009 at 7:17 pm
Nice post, Scott. I can’t stop thinking about that 10 million.
April 20, 2009 at 3:26 pm
Marilyn,
No, I didn’t mean to suggest that nonprofits as a rule are cavalier about their missions. I just thought this was such an outstanding example of laser-like focus and commitment, and I know how hard it is to turn down money. It seemed to me to be worth highlighting them.
April 16, 2009 at 3:42 pm
Thanks, Bob. Spread the word!
April 15, 2009 at 10:23 pm
Scott,
My wife and I have been Kiva members for about a year. It’s a great experience because we feel that we are helping individuals – not organizations or countries. I even read the stories of people asking for loans when all of my money is committed. The stories tell a lot about the life circumstances of the people.
Bob
April 15, 2009 at 8:38 pm
Really terrific and so totally about what is possible because of www.
Thank you for acknowledging and praising an organization that deeply understands who they are and choose not to drift from mission despite the temptation. I think this does happen more often than we hear about. Is it based on fact that there are a lot of transgressors in the sector who take the money with or without strings or do they just get more press when they do?