Kiva.org: Dudeism’s Urban and Non-Urban Achievers

By Rev. Ed Churchman

In the last 12 months Dudeism has been involved in a very special project. We’ve banded together to lend our support to Kiva.org, a wonderful charity that provides loans across the globe to people who want to achieve but just don’t have the means. Now, as we approach our big One Year anniversary of being involved we’re looking to stir up even more support from within our community to get on board. So, let me tell you about what Kiva does…

Kiva is a non-profit organization with a mission to connect people through lending to alleviate poverty. Leveraging the internet and a worldwide network of microfinance institutions, Kiva lets individuals lend as little as $25 to help create opportunity around the world. They work with microfinance institutions on five continents to provide loans to people without access to traditional banking systems. One hundred percent of your loan is sent to these microfinance institutions, which they call Field Partners, who administer the loans in the field.

Each month you’ll receive repayments from every loan you’ve made back into your portfolio and the money is yours again to either re-lend back through Kiva or to withdraw back into your own bank account. They currently have an average repayment rate of 98.63%, so you don’t really have to worry about not getting your baksheesh back. These are some trustworthy borrowers they’ve got here!

Kiva accepts transactions through PayPal, so it’s completely safe to donate money into your Kiva portfolio. You can also make separate donations to help pay for the charity’s own running costs, but they will never take money out of donations you’ve allocated for lending, that all goes to the borrowers! You don’t have to finance an entire loan, you can be one of dozens who all put a little bit in to make up the full amount. Every little helps.

So far, with just 45 members, Dudeism’s official lending team, The Little Lebowski Urban Achievers, has managed to lend out $6,250 to 217 different individuals and groups around the world to help them with a range of things, from setting up small market stalls and other businesses to purchasing livestock and even building their own home. A few dollars out of our pockets can make a world of difference to some people across the world who just need a little leg up. You know the old saying, right? Give a man a fish and he’ll eat for a day, but give a man $300 to buy a little boat, a few nets and buckets and a little market stall and he’ll be selling fish to his compeers for a lifetime.

Currently, all profits from the sale our own book, The Dude De Ching, are periodically donated into our team fund to lend out in this fashion. That’s quite a portfolio we’ve got going, but we could do with even more help to make that difference. If you’re willing to start investing, even with just a one-off payment of $25 we can keep going to not only help out the borrowers, but to shame those charity sponges around the world in their mansions full of non-valued rugs.

What’s more, if you’re the competitive sort, we’re trying to raise our own lender and loans numbers up as part of the Religious Congregations category of teams. Apparently the Pastafarians are the biggest group of philanthropists going, and Dudos to them, but… y’know…what about the Dudes? Are we really the bums, looking for a hand-out, or are we the ones willing to give a loan of a few bucks to those who never had the breaks we got?

If you’re with us, join our lending team here: http://www.kiva.org/team/dudeism

We can track all the loans that we make as a team to see how they’re progressing, and keep in touch via the team message board.

We look forward to seeing you there in the crowd, guys. Any support for a worthy fucking cause is support we welcome. Be an urban achiever and help out the would-be urban and non-urban achievers around the world.