A piggy bank, our ‘kivarken,’ has lived in the kitchen of NDI for about ten years now. The kivar is fed by our colleagues through:
- ‘Fines’ for lost bets or inappropriate language.
- Accidentally taking the streetcar privately with your business public transport card; a great alternative to administrative hassle with time-consuming settlements of small amounts.
- ‘Croquette money’ for employee anniversaries, saved during the corona crisis because there are no colleagues in the office to eat those croquettes anyway.
- Donations; sometimes very substantial (grunt, grunt), but every euro counts.
- All kinds of money where something has to be paid for by someone, but no one really needs to have it themselves afterward.
With these savings, loans are granted. Pick someone who wants to borrow money, get the loan repaid, lend the money again.
For this purpose, the kivar has its own account at Kiva. More than 1.7 billion people have no bank account and cannot use financial services. They cannot save or borrow money, and improving their living conditions is hardly possible. Kiva supports local microfinance organizations by making capital available, for example, for student loans, to enable women to start a business, enable farmers to invest in more sustainable agriculture, and offer families safe and clean alternatives for cooking and generating energy.
The kivarken started modestly as a piggy bank in 2011. The little pig itself charges 0% interest, but, by now, ten years later, it has cumulatively lent 3,700 euros to nearly 150 different causes in over 50 countries to both more and less pig-loving projects. It gets back about 94% of the money lent, whereby the kivar does not shy away from danger when it comes to a noble but risky loan, which is not bad given the circumstances under which such a loan often has to be repaid.
You can follow the kivarken here: https://www.kiva.org/lender/kivarken.
If you have any questions or want to let the kivarken know about something, then e-mail: kivarken@ndi.nl.