Kiva Community Guidelines

Your rights and responsibilities as part of the Kiva community are laid out in the Terms of Use and the following guidelines, which apply to lending teams, comments, conversation tab posts, private messages, profiles and any other content posted on Kiva or Kiva’s social media properties. Note that content you post may be featured and used for Kiva’s marketing purposes.
 
Kiva is about connecting people through lending to alleviate poverty, and above all else we ask that you show respect for everyone in the Kiva community.

Things to do:

  • Post messages of support for teams, borrowers, Lending Partners, trustees and/or other lenders. You can also show your support by “liking” other lender comments.
  • Share why you supported a particular borrower, loan, Lending Partner or trustee.
  • Share any concerns you may have about a loan, business, borrower, Lending Partner or trustee; Kiva is an open community where transparency is valued.
  • Post comments related to the intended purpose of the lending team, blog or loan.
  • Flag a message if you think it’s inappropriate, or email our team to let us know.

Things to not do:

  • Do not spam.
  • Do not write rude, disrespectful, accusatory or inflammatory comments. Name calling is simply not allowed.
  • Do not share someone’s personal information.
  • Do not share information about a specific borrower's delinquency or default. Kiva is committed to protecting borrowers against any situation where their dignity could be compromised or called into question unfairly in a public way. Learn more here.
  • Do not personally attack, harass or threaten anyone.
  • Do not use profanity or link to vulgar content.
  • Do not repost content or messages that have been previously removed.
  • Do not suggest to a borrower that they do not have to repay the loan or can pay at a different repayment schedule than the one listed on the loan profile.
  • Do not engage in self-promotion, advertising or solicitation.
    • FOR EXAMPLE: do not promote other businesses or solicit money for other crowdfunding websites or projects outside of Kiva. If you're a Kiva borrower, do not promote your loan in private lender messages or in lending teams (unless you have permission from the team captain).
  • Do not post content that is off-topic.
    • FOR EXAMPLE: in loan comments, do not post topics that are irrelevant to the loan and the borrower’s business, which includes general feedback about Kiva, Kiva U.S. or any trustees or Lending Partners that are not specific to that particular loan.

The Kiva team reserves the right to remove posts and messages at our sole discretion. Frequent guideline violations may also lead to the loss of posting privileges.

If you have any questions, concerns or grievances related to these guidelines, please write our team at contactus@kiva.org.