{"id":5512,"date":"2012-02-15T18:18:19","date_gmt":"2012-02-16T04:18:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.tradingheroes.com\/?p=5512"},"modified":"2025-07-30T00:35:06","modified_gmt":"2025-07-30T07:35:06","slug":"announcing-the-official-trading-heroes-charity-partner-kiva","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tradingheroes.com\/announcing-the-official-trading-heroes-charity-partner-kiva\/","title":{"rendered":"Announcing The Official Trading Heroes Charity Partner: Kiva"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I have been giving this post a lot of thought over the past two years.\u00a0 There are a few charities that I personally support and I have written about before, such as <a href=\"https:\/\/oceana.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Oceana<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tradingheroes.com\/how-to-sell-donate-or-recycle-your-old-books\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">Reader-To-Reader<\/a>.\u00a0 But I wanted to find a charity partner that I could put Trading Heroes behind that would represent what I believe in and the change I want this blog to make in the world.<\/p>\n<p>So after a lot of thought and research, I have decided to make <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tradingheroes.com\/supports\/kiva\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Kiva<\/a> the official partner charity of Trading Heroes.\u00a0 There are several reasons for this decision.<\/p>\n<h2>Why I Chose Kiva<\/h2>\n<p>Here they are in no particular order:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>They have an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.charitynavigator.org\/index.cfm?bay=search.summary&orgid=12978\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">excellent rating<\/a> on Charity Navigator, an independent charity evaluator<\/li>\n<li>Kiva makes loans to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tradingheroes.com\/supports\/kiva\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">micro businesses in developing countries<\/a>.\u00a0 That means we are supporting people who are creating products, services and jobs.\u00a0 I feel that this will go much further in ending world poverty than just donating money.<\/li>\n<li>They have a 98.88% repayment rate at the time of this writing<\/li>\n<li>Each loan is only $25, not a huge risk<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<figure id=\"attachment_5513\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-5513\" style=\"width: 359px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-5513\" title=\"kiva_logo_hiRez\" src=\"https:\/\/www.tradingheroes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/kiva_logo_hiRez.jpg\" alt=\"Kiva micro loans\" width=\"369\" height=\"197\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-5513\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Loans That Change Lives<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h2><\/h2>\n<h2>Why Lend?<\/h2>\n<p>I think this video says it all&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ZwGEQcFo9RE?rel=0&showinfo=0\" width=\"853\" height=\"480\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h2>How It Works<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Choose a borrower from the list<\/li>\n<li>Loan as little as $25 to their project<\/li>\n<li>When the total amount that the person wishes to borrow is fulfilled, the loan is given out<\/li>\n<li>They repay you according to the terms of the loan<\/li>\n<li>Do it again! You can relend the money, or donated it directly to Kiva to fund their operating costs.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>The Risks<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>These are unsecured loans, so you could lose all of your investment.\u00a0 Luckily it is a small amount.<\/li>\n<li>There is no return on the loan, you do not receive any interest<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>How To Reduce Your Risk<\/h2>\n<p>If your loans default, then you won't be able to reuse your money to help others.\u00a0 So it is only prudent to do everything in your power to make sure that you get your money repaid.\u00a0 Here is what I look for when choosing business owners to lend to.<\/p>\n<p>I start by looking at the local financial entities that the loans are done through. Kiva calls them Field Partners. One of my favorites is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kiva.org\/partners\/116\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">XacBank in Mongolia<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/th_pics\/5512-xac-bank-kiva.jpg\" alt=\"Xac Bank in Mongolia Microloans \" width=\"300\" height=\"526\" \/><\/p>\n<p>When you look at their risk rating, that will give you a good idea of how risky it is to lend to borrowers that apply through them.\u00a0 XacBank has a 5\/5 rating at the time of this writing.\u00a0 This won't completely eliminate your risk, but it will greatly reduce it.<\/p>\n<p>From there, I look for people who have an existing business or extensive experience in the area that they are going to start a business in.\u00a0 I generally look for businesses that have non-perishable inventory to further lower the risk.<\/p>\n<p>Then I like to look for people who are parents or supporting others because I feel that this makes them more inclined to be responsible and focused on their business.\u00a0 I stay away from personal loans (like loans for cars and home repair) because they are just putting themselves in the hole, without creating the potential for additional income.<\/p>\n<p><strong>UPDATE (03\/15\/2014):<\/strong> So far, this has worked well and I have had only had two defaults out of 21 loans.\u00a0 But in both cases, they had already paid back 90%+ of the principal.<\/p>\n<h2>Join The Team<\/h2>\n<p>To make things more fun, I've started a group to lend together.\u00a0 Being on the team doesn't cost anything and there is no obligation.\u00a0 It is just a way for traders to get together to support a cause we believe in.\u00a0 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kiva.org\/team\/tradingheroes\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Click here<\/a> to see how the team is doing.<\/p>\n<h2>How I Will Support Them<\/h2>\n<p>I will donate 5% of all proceeds from the sale of Trading Heroes products and affiliate sales to Kiva and I will blog about the loans.\u00a0 Trading is all about learning to create an income by educating yourself to trade in order to live <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tradingheroes.com\/what-is-the-trading-lifestyle\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">The Trading Lifestyle<\/a>.\u00a0 By supporting people in developing countries that want to help themselves, I believe that we can make a difference and help them to live a better lifestyle too.<\/p>\n<p><em>Are there any charities that you support that you want to us to know about?\u00a0 Leave a comment below and tell about it any why you support that charity.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I have wanted this blog to stand for something more than just my desire to become a professional Forex trader.  I also want it to be an agent for positive change in the world and this is one way that I want to make that happen.  Kiva is an organization that facilitates micro loans to entrepreneurs in developing countries.  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2022,"featured_media":5514,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[204239],"tags":[407],"class_list":["post-5512","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-trading-education","tag-charities","generate-columns","tablet-grid-50","mobile-grid-100","grid-parent","grid-33"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.1.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Why Trading Heroes Supports Kiva<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Kiva is now the official charity partner of Trading Heroes. Read this article to find out why and what Kiva does.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.tradingheroes.com\/announcing-the-official-trading-heroes-charity-partner-kiva\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Why Trading Heroes Supports Kiva\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Kiva is now the official charity partner of Trading Heroes. Read this article to find out why and what Kiva does.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.tradingheroes.com\/announcing-the-official-trading-heroes-charity-partner-kiva\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Trading Heroes\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/tradingheroes\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-02-16T04:18:19+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-07-30T07:35:06+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.tradingheroes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/kiva-sm.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"150\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"150\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Hugh Kimura\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@tradingheroes\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@tradingheroes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Why Trading Heroes Supports Kiva","description":"Kiva is now the official charity partner of Trading Heroes. 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