As an entrepreneur, Tim Burke eschews giving cigars or wine to his contacts when the holidays roll around.
Instead, he offers Kiva gift cards, which allow those in his network to support an entrepreneur in a less prosperous part of the world.
“It’s a novel and more meaningful gift,” said Burke, president and co-founder of
He has been investing in Kiva, a San Francisco-based non-profit that allows investors to put as little as $25 into one of the many ventures outlined on their website, for about two years.
Last year, Burke gave 30 gift cards to those in his business network. They, in turn, invested in ventures as diverse as a T-shirt maker in the Philippines and a businesswoman in Samoa who needed to buy knives and a wheelbarrow.
Many of Kiva’s clients run service operations, but Burke prefers to target his investments at those trying to build a business.
In recent months, he has invested in various entrepreneurs who sell food, including Diana in Peru, who has two children and repaid her loan in less than a year. He also invested in Conchita in the Philippines, who has five children, and Ghassan in Iraq, a father of four.
Burke also gives Kiva gift cards to his four children, aged eight to 15, who relish the process of finding and supporting the entrepreneurs they feel they have the greatest rapport with.
“Most meaningful for us is identifying how a small dollar amount in the right hands can be so useful,” Burke says.
“It’s empowering people to make a living through entrepreneurship. … My children have the opportunity to look for and identify something that touches them. They absolutely love it. It’s fascinating — a geography lesson and a life lesson.”
Burke’s daughter, Langley, 10, said she sponsors women who have lots of children. She likes to “lead” off the sponsorship, meaning she enjoys being the first to contribute to an individual before they have any other funding.
Burke’s sons, Macguire, 8, and Jacob, 15, also like to be the “lead.” Macguire looks for men with lots of children, while Kenzie, 13, seeks to invest in teachers and widows with children.
Burke’s children also enjoy the re-gifting that occurs when a business is successful and the loan is repaid into their Kiva accounts, allowing them to reinvest the money in other ventures.
“As it turns out, several of my kids’ investments got repaid in the last few weeks, so they were busy re-gifting their loans today,” Burke said, adding that Kiva is a great way to teach youngsters about entrepreneurship.
Kiva says it works with micro-finance institutions on five continents to provide loans to people without access to traditional banking systems. One hundred per cent of each loan is sent to the field partners to administer.
The non-profit also relies on a global network of more than 450 volunteers who work with the field partners to edit and translate borrower stories and assist with other Kiva programs.
The organization claims to be the world’s first and largest micro-lending platform
Since starting in 2005, 855,899 Kiva lenders have lent a total of $381.7 million to 928,923 borrowers in 66 countries. The loans have been repaid at a rate of 98.98 percent.
“Kiva,” Burke said, “has been the gift that keeps on giving for us.”
