How We Started
The San Joaquin Valley Microfinance Team, originally envisioned as a service learning project with the UC Merced chapter of Engineers for a Sustainable World (ESW), has since branched out into other majors. With members of ESW working alongside finance and other non-engineering majors, the microfinance team is working toward creating an environmentally sustainable approach to microfinancing as a Kiva Zip Trustee. Currently, there are no methods of analysis for the impacts that these loans will make, or any other environmental assessment tools.
Whenever the semester is in session, the current team will work to create these assessment tools and put them into practice for Kiva. Once these tools are deemed valuable, the team will aid Kiva by having them implement these assessment tools within their business. To accomplish this goal, two main steps are envisioned. The first will be becoming a Kiva Zip Trustee, which will help with the financial analysis aspect our goal. Our financial team will work to develop a method of analysis to properly assess future borrowers. These methods will be developed in collaboration with an experienced Kiva Zip Trustee such as the Berkeley Microfinance Team. The second step will cover the environmental analysis aspect of our goal. Our environmental team will work to create simple-to-use tools and assessments that will rate how environmentally impacting a borrower's loan will be. These two methods will then be merged together to create the finalized guidelines and a final assessment tool to be utilized. These goals will allow future teams to begin testing and refining the developed products as a Kiva Zip Trustee.
