Oakland’s city council is set to vote on an idea that could help small businesses get off the ground.
It’s a proposal to partner with Kiva.org, a non-profit micro-lending organization based in San Francisco.
For years now, people have been using Kiva to make small loans that fund start-up businesses around the world. So far, it has raised more than $400 million to fund entrepreneurs in 67 countries.
That’s all because some 930,000 lenders have given as little as $25 to the non-profit organization. Oakland may become the first city in the country to become a formal trustee in their network.
“That means we get to endorse three companies to receive loans of up to $10,000 and it becomes a revolving loan,” Oakland City Councilmember Libby Schaaf said. “Once one of those loans is repaid we can then designate a new company to benefit from Kiva’s services.”
Mandela foods is a small business that benefited from a kiva loan before oakland made a proposal to become a trustee.
The local grocery store in west Oakland opened up four years ago.
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“We wanted to open this grocery store up because people in this area need food,” James Berk said. Berk and his partners applied and got a $5,000 Kiva loan. They used the money for advertising. They say it will be paid off soon.
”I’ve spoken to a lot of people in Oakland and there seems to be a real sense of community and a strong sense of identity I’m from Oakland,” Jonny Price, Senior Director of Kiva Zip said. “What we’re trying to do here at kiva zip is about building that community.”
