Kiva conducts regular, ongoing monitoring of all Lending Partners, but only posts status updates here in response to relevant, major changes at the partner.

Status update — February 7, 2018
The final liquidation process of Fundacion Alternativa’s assets will take place over the next 3 years. Because this process is anticipated to take a long time, Kiva has decided to write off the remaining outstanding balance of the organization and default their remaining loans. We have also moved forward with closing this partnership. If Kiva is able to recover additional payments from the liquidation process when it occurs, we will pass them along to affected lenders.
 

Status update — April 17, 2017

Following poor organizational performance and declining portfolio quality, Fundación Alternativa has made the decision to shut down its operations and sell its remaining portfolio to an Ecuadorian financial institution. Kiva has settled the proceeds of this sale pro-rata to all Kiva lenders with outstanding repayments from Fundación Alternativa borrowers and we have paused their partnership. Kiva will continue to coordinate with Fundación Alternativa to recoup as much of lenders' funds as possible, but given their high portfolio delinquency it’s unlikely the total outstanding balance owed to Kiva lenders will be collected.  

Status update — October 12, 2016

During recent monitoring, Kiva staff uncovered evidence of poor organizational performance and portfolio quality at Fundación Alternativa. As a result, Kiva has chosen to restrict this organization's ability to fundraise for new loans as these concerns are investigated. Kiva continues to work to understand the cause of these issues, with the goal of recovering funds still owed to Kiva lenders, and will share additional information with lenders as it becomes available.

Partner description:

Fundación Alternativa is a non-profit organization in Ecuador that supports small-scale entrepreneurs and provides sustainable financial and non-financial services to vulnerable communities. The organization aims to promote social, economic, and ecological development to improve people’s lives.

To make this possible, Fundación Alternativa has developed a number of programs for low-income clients. In addition to microcredit, it provides education and training in various fields, technical assistance, supply chain and marketing support, and local economic development services. It does so through local organizations with community roots like parish councils.

Since 1991, Fundación Alternativa has worked to strengthen Ecuador’s microfinance industry through the creation of both Banco Solidario, which focuses on microfinance, and later, the first training center specializing in microcredit methodology.

In 2012, Fundación Alternativa created a microfinance program of its own to offer 12 microcredit products and reach urban, rural and marginalized clients in Pichincha, Santo Domingo de los Tsáchilas, Cotopaxi  and Imbabura. The organization is proud to serve a customer base that is both 62% women and 56% rural.