What is a Trustee?
Empower entrepreneurs in your community with 0% interest loans.
WHAT IS A TRUSTEE?
Trustees are organizations invested in economic development in their communities. Trustees are often already providing wrap-around services to small business owners in their community, and use their relationships to source entrepreneurs they believe would benefit from Kiva’s loan product and publicly vouch for them as borrowers on the Kiva website through “endorsements.”
Trustees add credibility to a borrower by vouching for their character, business, and social impact. Before endorsing a borrower, a Trustee should feel confident that the borrower has done the work to be successful in their industry and that they are committed to repaying the loan. Additionally, a Trustee should be sure that the loan will increase business revenue, and that this growth will have a positive impact on the borrower’s business and the community at large.
Due to a large volume of applications, our Trustee program is invite-only at this time. If interested, please email us at trustees@kiva.org with information about your organization and why you believe working with Kiva is a good fit.
WHAT ARE THE RESPONSIBILITIES OF A TRUSTEE?
Identify: Reach out to businesses and entrepreneurs in your network who would benefit from a Kiva loan
Evaluate: Endorse borrowers based on your understanding of their business and impact of Kiva loan. Review successful borrower criteria in the Trustee Resources section
Support: Set expectations with borrowers for the application review criteria and fundraising timeline, helping them through their Kiva loan process if needed
Monitor: Trustees do not have a financial or legal liability for their endorsed borrowers’ repayment, but your public profile and Trustee status reflect the repayment rate of your borrowers. Your repayment rate also determines whether you can continue to act as a Trustee
WHAT IS THE BENEFIT OF BEING A TRUSTEE?
As a Trustee, your organization has a microlending tool at your disposal that allows you to...
Invest in your community: by helping entrepreneurs gain access to funding to start or grow a business, you have the chance to make an integral impact in your community
Track your impact over time: Trustees can track and share data on the loans they endorse to communicate their impact to funders and raise grant funding
Increase the exposure of your organization: your Trustee profile page publicly showcases your organization and impact to date and is visible to Kiva’s more than 1.6 million lenders around the world
Build local networks: a Trustee can further rally support for local businesses through the Kiva platform by making a local lending team. To learn more about teams, visit this page
To learn more about inviting Borrowers click here.
To explore even further, check out some of our amazing Trustees!
Have a question? Email trustees@kiva.org