Today I start to look at Kiva.org.
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It can be found following the URL below.
https://www.kiva.org/



It's simple to use and its mission is “to connect people through lending to alleviate poverty.”
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According to Wikipedia:
>Since 2005, Kiva has crowd-funded more than a million loans, totaling over $1 billion, with a repayment rate of between 98 and 99 percent. As of November 2013, Kiva was raising about $1 million every three days. The Kiva platform has attracted a community of well over a million lenders from around the world.

That data seems old but it seems that there is no doubt that they have raised a lot of money, helped distribute many loans and most people that lend through kiva get their money back.

The site is dressed down to make it a simple to use as possible. 

You start by selecting a category.
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![](https://steemitimages.com/DQme9TTxeEQcAFrMCntWSjamcRz81R5N8V2vqenMHW3dKYq/image.png)

Select a story or cause.
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![](https://steemitimages.com/DQmNpaYZxspDjNMKmPYbf6vx81jxAm63LX8BmDQ57AwcM4j/image.png)

That puts it in you cart
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You can edit the amount you wish to lend and there is a kiva default donation you need to click on if you wish to alter it. 

![](https://steemitimages.com/DQmYt6uoRPGhDDhV8QNqpoacffYvKw3m1y4PAgofzGr6Z3S/image.png)

If you are signed in that's pretty much all there is to it.
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Nice and simple... You have done your good deed for the day and you can walk away patting yourself on the back with a warm fuzzy feeling inside.

or, can you...
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But you found a nice cause and sent them some money... 

What could be wrong with that?
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Tomorrow I will look at kiva from a borrower perspective and then it will be seen that the picture is slightly less rosy than the one painted to the Lender.

`All pictures in this post are screengrabs taken directly from the kiva.org website for illustrative purposes.`