Strategies: Shriver's big on small loans, for good reason
— -- It was an ordinary day at the San Francisco offices of Kiva — the online community that enables people to loan very small amounts of money to aspiring entrepreneurs and small businesses in developing countries.
The young president, Premal Shah, and CEO, Matt Flannery, were in the midst of one of their daily arguments. All of a sudden, with no warning, in walked the first lady of California, Maria Shriver.
Shriver had a simple question: Why not enable microloans right here in America?
That surprise visit over a year ago resulted in a new microlending program in the U.S., launched June 10. Small-business owners can now receive loans for small, but critical amounts, through Kiva.org. This is especially important when credit, and times, are so tough.
As importantly, those of you who want to help others right here in America start and grow their businesses — often pulling themselves out of poverty or unemployment — can make loans in amounts as low as $25. Remember, these are loans — not charity. And they make a huge difference. As the tagline for Kiva goes, "loans that change lives."
Shriver first became interested in microlending as a result of the Women's Conference she runs as first lady (her husband is California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger) and a program — WE invest — that grew out of the conference. "We'd wanted to do microlending in California for some time." Knowing of Nobel Peace Prize winner, Muhammad Yunus, whose Grameen Bank makes microloans throughout the world, Shriver thought, "Why can't we do that here?"
But everyone told her microlending in the U.S. was too complicated. There were legal problems. It couldn't be done. And then she heard of Kiva, a company doing global microlending, based in her own state of California.
"I was in San Francisco and had down time for two hours," Shriver told me. "I went over to Kiva. I just wanted to walk around their offices. We sat down, and I asked, 'Why can't we work together?' I started scared, and then I met the Kiva people, and they were not scared. And I thought, 'these are good people for me.'" Isn't it nice to know that Maria Shriver — a Kennedy and first lady of California — gets scared, too?
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