Q: When will you meet?
A: We will meet at 7:25am every other Tuesday morning. During the first few weeks, we may meet more frequently to get everything running smoothly and vote on which groups we should support, what activities we will do, and to explain how everything works. Communications will be made if this happens.
Q: What kind of fundraising do you guys do?
A: We are open to any suggestions, but we have three main fundraisers in mind:
Q: What program will you guys be using to fundraise the money?
A: We will be using Kiva.org, a trustworthy, non-profit organization that allows groups to form and fundraise money for worthy causes.
Q: Is there some sort of vetting process that allows you to know if you’ll actually get repaid?
A: Kiva background checks and vets all crowdfunding done on Kiva through their 80+ field partners, or the local-level organizations that help support the people’s ventures. The repayment rate for all loans on Kiva is 96.9%, which means 3.1% of loans do not get paid back. To avoid losing more money, we will try to diversify our funding so that the money is well-distributed across numerous ventures. That way, in the case of someone not repaying a loan, we still have donated to a worthy cause but will lose less of our group’s money.
However, not all loans are through field partners. There is an option to give a direct loan directly to a borrower without a field partner; this option is riskier due to there being no middleman to get back the money, and it’s only available for US ventures. For now, we’ll try to stick to field partner loans.
Q: Okay, this sounds great and all, but how does Kiva make money?
A: Since Kiva is a non-profit organization, ⅔ of their funds rely on donations from lenders, and the other ⅓ are covered by grants and other donations. Additionally, borrowers pay an interest to Kiva. Bottom line: the lenders do not pay any interest.
A: We will meet at 7:25am every other Tuesday morning. During the first few weeks, we may meet more frequently to get everything running smoothly and vote on which groups we should support, what activities we will do, and to explain how everything works. Communications will be made if this happens.
Q: What kind of fundraising do you guys do?
A: We are open to any suggestions, but we have three main fundraisers in mind:
- A Chipotle fundraiser : we apply, get approved, and if we make >$300, we get 33% of the profit. We can only host one per year, however. Must apply a few weeks in advance.
- A California Pizza Kitchen fundraiser: we host a similar fundraiser using the same process as above but get 20% back instead. Can hold more than one per year.
- Selling popcorn throughout the school much like Girl Scout Cookies. Students go throughout the school and ask their friends and teachers if they want to buy gourmet popcorn to help a cause, fill out the form, submit the form, and we get 50% back to our club. The person who raises the most money gets a prize [TBD].
- Any other opportunities and suggestions!
Q: What program will you guys be using to fundraise the money?
A: We will be using Kiva.org, a trustworthy, non-profit organization that allows groups to form and fundraise money for worthy causes.
Q: Is there some sort of vetting process that allows you to know if you’ll actually get repaid?
A: Kiva background checks and vets all crowdfunding done on Kiva through their 80+ field partners, or the local-level organizations that help support the people’s ventures. The repayment rate for all loans on Kiva is 96.9%, which means 3.1% of loans do not get paid back. To avoid losing more money, we will try to diversify our funding so that the money is well-distributed across numerous ventures. That way, in the case of someone not repaying a loan, we still have donated to a worthy cause but will lose less of our group’s money.
However, not all loans are through field partners. There is an option to give a direct loan directly to a borrower without a field partner; this option is riskier due to there being no middleman to get back the money, and it’s only available for US ventures. For now, we’ll try to stick to field partner loans.
Q: Okay, this sounds great and all, but how does Kiva make money?
A: Since Kiva is a non-profit organization, ⅔ of their funds rely on donations from lenders, and the other ⅓ are covered by grants and other donations. Additionally, borrowers pay an interest to Kiva. Bottom line: the lenders do not pay any interest.