The Company
Called the "hottest non-profit on the planet" by FORTUNE magazine and a Top 50 Website by TIME, Kiva (www.kiva.org) is the world's first person-to-person lending marketplace for the poor. In just 7 years, Kiva has raised over $300+ million for 800,000+ entrepreneurs in 60+ countries. Kiva combines the culture and approach of an internet start-up with an intense focus on alleviating global poverty. Kiva is poised to take its initial success to a whole new level - targeting $1 billion in loans by 2015 and expansion into new areas (e.g. student loans, climate change, etc). Headquartered in San Francisco, Kiva's team has 100 employees and 500+ volunteers.
The Team
Kiva Zip (https://zip.kiva.org/) is a pilot project with an experimental site, launched by Kiva in August 2011 that enables individuals to make direct loans to entrepreneurs in Kenya and the United States. The pilot’s objectives are to test whether and how Kiva can make loans directly to borrowers. The team currently consists of two program managers (US and Kenya), one consultant, two engineers, product support from interns, and a program director. The Role
· The Consultant/Contractor will work closely with the Kiva Zip team in San Francisco and in Nairobi· Work with the team in San Francisco to develop and implement a Kiva Zip risk strategy in Kenya, including:
o experimenting and integrating with existing 3rd party vendors such as InSight and Metropol to conduct due diligence on Kiva Zip borrowers
o finding new ways to leverage technology to further manage risk, as the program grows
· Collaborate with the team to refine the Kiva Zip model in Kenya through controlled experiments (e.g. Group Loans)
· Develop and implement a Kiva Zip borrower-facing branding/marketing strategy in Kenya than will allow us to scale (e.g. how do we go from 250 borrowers to 2,500? / 25,000?)
· Lead and guide a team of ~6 volunteers (Kiva Fellows)You are. . .
· Highly independent, proactive and entrepreneurial. You need to be a self-starter who is comfortable with ambiguity and defining your own direction.· Extremely passionate about your work and alleviating poverty in the world.
· Someone who enjoys being part of a close-knit and collaborative team. You get along well with others and genuinely want to help and support others.
· Able to work successfully on multiple projects.
· Someone with a well-developed, balanced skillset. You should be comfortable answering challenging strategic questions, executing analyses, interacting with people, and rigorously driving operational execution.
Requirements:
· Bachelors degree· 2+ years experience, preferably in strategic consulting role
· Excellent written and verbal English
· Excellent computer skills
· People like working with you
