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Behind the Scenes at the Kiva San Francisco Launch Party
October 8, 2015By: Robin Kendall
What does it take to put on the biggest Kiva event in history?
Over 1,000 people came out to celebrate Kiva's San Francisco City Launch on October 1, 2015. I began my Fellowship exactly 18 days ago after moving to San Francisco to work as a Kiva Fellow. In just three short weeks I’ve been impressed by the energy and community of the Kiva Zip team.
For months, the Kiva Zip team in the US has been preparing for the San Francisco City Kiva Launch and my first weeks were inundated with meeting trustees, helping borrowers with their profiles and pictures, and supporting as many local businesses on the website as possible.
The big day finally arrived and at the launch we had 34 San Francisco small business owners on the Kiva Zip site.
Kiva’s partnership with the City of San Francisco is to bring at least 1,000 small business owners 0% interest loans of up to $10,000 in the next 5 years. You can read all about the San Francisco City Launch here and here.
Who are the people behind the scenes at the Kiva San Francisco Launch event?
Borrowers - willing to share their stories and time.
Lenders – Enthusiastic to lend and repeat on the Kiva website.
Trustees – Working together to collectively support neighborhood small businesses.
Staff – Putting in the long hours to ensure that dreams are realized and opportunity is not a barrier to success.
Interns and Fellows – Energized by the power of personal connections to small business owners.
You can be a part of Kiva’s commitment to San Francisco by visiting www.kiva.org/SF and making a loan today!
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