Kiva
0%-interest, character-based loans that put capital in the hands of entrepreneurs the system overlooks.
Kiva is a peer-to-peer platform that lets anyone crowdfund a 0%-interest loan of up to $10,000 for an entrepreneur and it’s capital extended on the strength of character and community rather than collateral and credit scores. We became one of Kiva's earliest and most trusted implementation partners in the U.S., launching Kiva Louisville, then Kiva Columbus, and then Kiva Tulsa, and serving as a hands-on partner for roughly three years.
Why we did it
When we began our work, access to small-business capital was broken: roughly four of five small-business owners are denied a growth loan, and cities like Louisville had far too few CDFIs to fill the gap. Talented entrepreneurs and disproportionately women, people of color, and folks from modest means were being turned away not because they wouldn't repay, but because they didn't fit a traditional underwriting box.
Kiva was a powerful answer that simply lacked local awareness and infrastructure. So we brought it to our market, seeded match funds to spur adoption, and did the on-the-ground work of building lending communities city by city. Character-based lending fit our conviction perfectly: that access and agency belong together, and that most people, given a fair shot at capital, will build something worthy of it.
What we built
Three city launches. We stood up Kiva Communities in Louisville, Columbus, and Tulsa — recruiting borrowers, mobilizing lenders, and building the local trust these platforms require.
The Kiva Playbook. Drawing on what we learned, we authored the Kiva Playbook: Building a Kiva Community, a practical guide for other cities to do the same, created as part of Bryce Butler's LISC Rubinger Fellowship. It turned our hard-won lessons into a replicable roadmap.
Real capital deployed. Within a mile of our Shelby Park work, Kiva funded 13 loans to 11 businesses (54% women- or minority-owned); across the Louisville metro, 135 loans totaling more than $800,000; and nationally, Kiva has channeled millions in 0%-interest funding, most of it to underrepresented entrepreneurs.
Part of a bigger stack
Kiva was never a standalone program for us but it was the first layer of a coordinated capital stack. Kiva handled the smallest, earliest needs; when entrepreneurs needed more than its $10,000 cap, we built the Growth Loan (non-collateralized loans up to $35,000) and later Lenderfit to let other communities run the same play. Together, these tools became the foundation of a thriving-entrepreneurial-ecosystem strategy, and the direct precursor to our Regional Capital Plan, which scaled this layered, blended approach across the region.
Why it matters to us
Our Kiva work taught us, city by city and loan by loan, that capital deployed on trust rather than fear can unlock enormous human potential. It widened who gets to participate in the economy, strengthened three cities' entrepreneurial communities, and gave us the playbook, literally, for everything we've built since.
Our role: Trusted implementation partner and we launched and ran Kiva Communities in three cities
Type: Peer-to-peer microlending platform (community partnership)
Where: Louisville, then Columbus, then Tulsa
Status: Foundational to our capital-stack work; precursor to the Regional Capital Plan