Trustee Policies

Trustee Policies at-a-Glance

1. Kiva does not accept Trustee-specific edits or addenda to the Terms of Use contract.

2. No Trustee may endorse a borrower without signing the Trustee Terms of Use.

3. Key policies from the Trustee Terms of Use (copied in full in Section 3 of the Trustee Terms of Use ) that would result in closing the Trustee’s account:

   1. Do not transmit any spam, solicitation, or advertising to any users on Kiva.org or through information made available to you through your relationship with Kiva.

   2. Do not submit fraudulent or inaccurate information to the Kiva website.

      • Submitting a borrower's loan application without the borrower's understanding and consent constitutes fraud.

   3. Do not request any money or other goods or services from borrowers in exchange for endorsing them on Kiva.

   4. Do not physically, verbally or otherwise intimidate or abuse the borrowers you endorse on Kiva.

4. Eligibility

   1. Multiple branches of the same organization may each create a Trustee profile, but each branch should have a separate person managing the profile.

   2. No organization can have individual level Trustee accounts. Each Trustee account must be in the name of their organization, or local organizational chapter (e.g. Catholic Charities San Jose and NOT Jim Jones). 

   3. Each organization or local branch of an organization can only have one Trustee account that is connected to a more general organizational e-mail. Individuals cannot sign up as themselves and use their personal emails. 

   4. Borrowers whose business/organization wants to become a Trustee can become Trustees after they’ve repaid at least six months of their own loan, and if they are on-time on their loan.

   5. Trustees cannot charge clients for its support in accessing a Kiva loan

      1. Many of Kiva’s Trustees are technical service providers who are nonprofits and for-profits and who may host business courses, etc. to clients in return for a fee. This is permissible; however, the Trustee must make it clear to the borrower that the Kiva US Loan application process is free.

5. Data

   1. Trustees may not ask for more data than what is provided to them in their Trustee dashboard. This is to protect the privacy of borrowers.

   2. If you are interested in getting more in-depth data, consider becoming a Hub.