No-interest, no-fee, community-backed business loans from $1,000 to $15,000 are crowdfunded on Kiva’s world-wide online platform with support from local Arizona Capital Access Manager Carie Davis.
Kiva is an international nonprofit that connects entrepreneurs and small business owners with community lenders, who are people and organizations with as little as $25 to invest. Kiva uses social underwriting—character and reputation—to determine the creditworthiness of a borrower, so borrowers with little to no credit, as well as startups, can be eligible.
As Kiva’s local operating partner, the new Kiva Tucson hub works with Arizona borrowers throughout the application, fundraising, and repayment process to help them succeed. Learn more
The first Kiva Tucson loan to be fully funded is Creative Kind, a place for people to gather, connect over creativity, and make or discover something beautiful. The business hosts weekly instructed craft workshops, offer drop-in DIY projects, and sell curated goods from small businesses and local makers. In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, they prioritized e-commerce improvements and online product expansion as a pre-cursor to a digital advertising campaign investment.
Kiva Tucson is a program of Growth Partners Arizona (GPAz) in partnership with the Community Investment Corporation, both located in Tucson, Arizona.
