My family of strong Colorado women raised and taught me skills in textile arts, the values I needed to define my life perspective, and, more importantly, the drive to follow through with my convictions. In elementary school, I watched a frontier re-enactor describe and show wool processing by hand, and I fell in love with the ancient process of making yarn for fabric.
My formal education came from Michigan Technological University, where, in 1992, I received a visual communication degree with a business minor. I put that degree to work by developing small-business websites while practicing my knitting and needle felting hobbies. This hobby work encouraged my intense interest in wool, its use, and how it gets from the farm to the consumer.
Subsequent research taught me that wool has cultural and economic value in general, and when I learned that many southeast Ohio farmers no longer saw that value in their thread, I knew I had to act. I decided to work with our farmers to prove their wool has value in the craft market through connections with local makers and other yarn stores. With an evolving national trend toward using natural fibers to replace our reliance on synthetic fabrics, my work toward reviving Ohio’s wool industry becomes even more urgent.
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Funded
A loan helped create finished wool yarn from raw material supplied by local sheep farmers.
Lisa's story
This loan is special because:
More about this loan
Business Description
Southeast Ohio Fiberworks provides specialty wool products from various breeds of livestock in the southeast Ohio region. These products have different usable qualities, and because they come from renewable resources on small farms, they are sustainably produced in the USA.
Around southeast Ohio, the most common sheep in our market are sheep breeds, such as Suffolk, Hampshire, and Dorper, and an infinite number of their crosses. All offer strong shorter staple wool with a high micron wool shaft diameter, though their wool is usually considered waste and ends up in a compost pile or the landfill. Though most wool graders who evaluate the fineness of wool will call these fleeces “coarse,” they are pretty smooth and silky to the touch, are difficult to feel, and are perfect for outerwear, socks, and rugs.
Southeast Ohio has a growing network of farmers and makers who work together to make value-added products from local supplies. Working with this network, I secure raw local wool to process into regional wool yarns to sell to my customers. These yarns will reflect the character and high quality of southeast Ohio wool, encourage sustainable agriculture practices for healthy animals and beautiful, strong thread, and allow me to compensate farmers for the wool they produce pretty.
Unfortunately, the once vibrant ecosystem that would have provided this yarn disintegrated when the textile industry moved to use synthetic fibers after WWII. We lost an established wool supply chain over the ensuing decades and lost the infrastructure to process it locally. I identified this problem in 2019 and started Southeast Ohio Fiberworks to address this issue and sell yarn through my online shop, vending at pop-ups, and, eventually, a local yarn store in Athens.
What is the purpose of this loan?
Sheep farmers must shear their sheep every year to keep their flocks healthy. I’ve found in my work over the last few years that they mostly throw it out once it is of their sheep. They’ve been told by other sheep farmers and their local Extension Service that the wool has no value. If they want to get paid for it, they can expect either pennies-on-the-pound from the wool co-op or my estimate of the usefulness of the wool, which will determine what I will pay for it, usually up to $5 per pound, or the cost of shearing.
Farmers who usually discard their wool are interested in selling the thread to me or letting me pay for shearing and taking the wool off their hands. The wool I gather in this way will allow me to create a line of yarns from Southeast Ohio to serve the local yarn shop market directly to consumers or to other businesses that stock unique varietal yarns. This loan will allow me to process 200lbs of rare Jacob wool I have on hand into various threads and dye those yarns in attractive colors for the hand-dyed wool market.
For example, consider 100 head of Jacob sheep, a rare breed with a medium-fine grade fleece with an average of two pounds of usable fiber per sheep. This 200 pounds of wool turns into about 670 skeins of wool yarn, which could make over 100 sweaters. Each 100g skein of yarn would cost about $12 to manufacture and sell for $25 per natural undyed skein to $35 per dyed skein. Our estimates indicate a potential revenue of $22,400 with a $14,000 profit.
Loan details
Loan length:
Repayment schedule
Monthly: One repayment made per month
End of term: One repayment made at the end of the loan term
Irregular: Any other repayment schedule
To see a detailed repayment schedule for a specific loan, click the "Repayment schedule" link on the loan profile under "Loan details."
What is the disbursed date?
In the case of partner loans, many of our Lending Partners choose to disburse loan funds before the loan request is posted on Kiva. We allow pre-disbursal because it ensures that the funds reach the borrower as soon as they are needed. Loan funds from Kiva lenders then go to backfill that amount and as a lender you assume the risk of the loan. By doing this, our Lending Partners assume the risk that, if the loan isn't funded by lenders, they will have to fund the loan without any funds from Kiva.
If a partner loan is not pre-disbursed, it will be listed on Kiva with an expected "post-disbursed" date. If a post-disbursed loan is not funded on Kiva, there is a chance that the borrower may not receive their loan. Some Lending Partners choose to disburse loans with other sources of funding, while other partners don't have the resources available to fund loans without Kiva lenders' support. No direct loans will be disbursed unless they fully fundraise on Kiva.
Funding model
What does "Partner covers currency loss" mean & how could it affect my Kiva loans?
Potential for currency exchange loss is noted on every loan profile under the loan details:
"Yes" means the Lending Partner will cover any currency loss. Lenders will not bear losses due to currency fluctuation
"Partial" means that the Lending Partner has opted to cover losses only up to 10%. If the U.S. dollar appreciates more than 10% against the local currency, those losses will be passed onto lenders.
"No" means that the Lending Partner is not covering any currency losses and all losses will be passed onto lenders.
"N/A" means the Lending Partner disburses loans to borrowers in USD so their loans are not subject to any currency fluctuation.
Do Kiva borrowers pay any interest on their loans?
Our partners collect interest from borrowers because there are many operational expenses associated with microfinance in developing markets, especially in rural areas. Many of Kiva's Lending Partners also provide additional services alongside their loan products such as business training, financial literacy lessons, or health services.
Kiva will not partner with an organization that charges unreasonable interest rates, and we require Lending Partners to fully disclose their rates. In addition, we only partner with microfinance institutions and organizations that have a social mission to serve the poor, unbanked, and underserved.
There are some 0% interest loans on Kiva, including all direct loans in the United States. To learn more about the interest rates Kiva borrowers pay, you can review the "Average cost to borrower" field on a loan profile.
We also encourage you to read the following articles if you are interested in further educating yourself on the topic: Microfinance 101 (https://www.kiva.org/microfinance), Top 10 things to know about microfinance (https://www.kiva.org/blog/top-10-things-to-know-about-microfinance), Microfinance interest rates explained (https://www.kiva.org/blog/whats-up-with-microfinance-interest-rates)
What is a risk rating?
The Lending Partner risk rating reflects the risk of institutional default associated with each of Kiva’s Lending Partners. A 0.5-star rating means the organization has a relatively higher risk of institutional default, while a 5-star rating indicates the organization is at a relatively lower risk of default, based on Kiva's analysis and the available information displayed in the Lending Partner section of every loan. Lending Partners with the lowest credit tier undergo a lighter level of due diligence and do not receive a risk rating; instead, in places where a risk rating would normally appear, these partners are labeled as “Experimental.” For more information, see "What is an Experimental Lending Partner?"
Direct loans also do not receive a formal risk rating. Instead, these loans are approved through “social underwriting”, where trustworthiness is determined by friends & family lending a portion of the loan request, or by a Kiva approved Trustee vouching for the borrower. Direct loans will appear as "Unrated" and lenders should always assume these loans represent the highest level of repayment risk on Kiva.
How are loans facilitated?
Kiva loans are facilitated through 2 models, partner and direct, that enable us to reach the greatest number of people around the world.
For partner loans, borrowers apply to a local Lending Partner, which manages the loan on the ground. Lending Partners are responsible for screening borrowers, disbursing loans, posting borrowers to the Kiva website for funding, collecting repayments and otherwise administering Kiva loans on the ground to borrowers.
For direct loans, borrowers apply through the Kiva website and may or may not be endorsed by a Trustee. Unlike Lending Partners, Trustees don't handle any financial transactions or have any duty to repay loans on behalf of their borrowers. Instead, Trustees take the role of providing support and business advice to their borrowers throughout the term of the loan.
More information about successive and concurrent loans
Most borrowers take out loans consecutively, meaning that they receive a second loan after having repaid the first. However, sometimes our Lending Partners give out concurrent loans, allowing borrowers to take out one primary loan and a secondary "add-on" loan along with it. These additional loans are typically smaller than the borrower's primary loan and serve a different purpose. We trust our partners to determine whether a borrower has the means to be able to repay a successive or concurrent loan.
About Southeast Ohio Fiberworks
Lenders and lending teams
Country: United States
Trustee: Rural Action
What are Trustee tiers?
For for more information about Trustee tiers, visit: kivaushub.org/trustee-tiers
Why are you endorsing Lisa?
Southeast Ohio Fiberworks will produce new market opportunities for sheep farmers throughout the Appalachian Ohio region by establishing a much needed supply line for wool products.
Tags
Loan details
Loan length:
Repayment schedule
Monthly: One repayment made per month
End of term: One repayment made at the end of the loan term
Irregular: Any other repayment schedule
To see a detailed repayment schedule for a specific loan, click the "Repayment schedule" link on the loan profile under "Loan details."
What is the disbursed date?
In the case of partner loans, many of our Lending Partners choose to disburse loan funds before the loan request is posted on Kiva. We allow pre-disbursal because it ensures that the funds reach the borrower as soon as they are needed. Loan funds from Kiva lenders then go to backfill that amount and as a lender you assume the risk of the loan. By doing this, our Lending Partners assume the risk that, if the loan isn't funded by lenders, they will have to fund the loan without any funds from Kiva.
If a partner loan is not pre-disbursed, it will be listed on Kiva with an expected "post-disbursed" date. If a post-disbursed loan is not funded on Kiva, there is a chance that the borrower may not receive their loan. Some Lending Partners choose to disburse loans with other sources of funding, while other partners don't have the resources available to fund loans without Kiva lenders' support. No direct loans will be disbursed unless they fully fundraise on Kiva.
Funding model
What does "Partner covers currency loss" mean & how could it affect my Kiva loans?
Potential for currency exchange loss is noted on every loan profile under the loan details:
"Yes" means the Lending Partner will cover any currency loss. Lenders will not bear losses due to currency fluctuation
"Partial" means that the Lending Partner has opted to cover losses only up to 10%. If the U.S. dollar appreciates more than 10% against the local currency, those losses will be passed onto lenders.
"No" means that the Lending Partner is not covering any currency losses and all losses will be passed onto lenders.
"N/A" means the Lending Partner disburses loans to borrowers in USD so their loans are not subject to any currency fluctuation.
Do Kiva borrowers pay any interest on their loans?
Our partners collect interest from borrowers because there are many operational expenses associated with microfinance in developing markets, especially in rural areas. Many of Kiva's Lending Partners also provide additional services alongside their loan products such as business training, financial literacy lessons, or health services.
Kiva will not partner with an organization that charges unreasonable interest rates, and we require Lending Partners to fully disclose their rates. In addition, we only partner with microfinance institutions and organizations that have a social mission to serve the poor, unbanked, and underserved.
There are some 0% interest loans on Kiva, including all direct loans in the United States. To learn more about the interest rates Kiva borrowers pay, you can review the "Average cost to borrower" field on a loan profile.
We also encourage you to read the following articles if you are interested in further educating yourself on the topic: Microfinance 101 (https://www.kiva.org/microfinance), Top 10 things to know about microfinance (https://www.kiva.org/blog/top-10-things-to-know-about-microfinance), Microfinance interest rates explained (https://www.kiva.org/blog/whats-up-with-microfinance-interest-rates)
What is a risk rating?
The Lending Partner risk rating reflects the risk of institutional default associated with each of Kiva’s Lending Partners. A 0.5-star rating means the organization has a relatively higher risk of institutional default, while a 5-star rating indicates the organization is at a relatively lower risk of default, based on Kiva's analysis and the available information displayed in the Lending Partner section of every loan. Lending Partners with the lowest credit tier undergo a lighter level of due diligence and do not receive a risk rating; instead, in places where a risk rating would normally appear, these partners are labeled as “Experimental.” For more information, see "What is an Experimental Lending Partner?"
Direct loans also do not receive a formal risk rating. Instead, these loans are approved through “social underwriting”, where trustworthiness is determined by friends & family lending a portion of the loan request, or by a Kiva approved Trustee vouching for the borrower. Direct loans will appear as "Unrated" and lenders should always assume these loans represent the highest level of repayment risk on Kiva.
How are loans facilitated?
Kiva loans are facilitated through 2 models, partner and direct, that enable us to reach the greatest number of people around the world.
For partner loans, borrowers apply to a local Lending Partner, which manages the loan on the ground. Lending Partners are responsible for screening borrowers, disbursing loans, posting borrowers to the Kiva website for funding, collecting repayments and otherwise administering Kiva loans on the ground to borrowers.
For direct loans, borrowers apply through the Kiva website and may or may not be endorsed by a Trustee. Unlike Lending Partners, Trustees don't handle any financial transactions or have any duty to repay loans on behalf of their borrowers. Instead, Trustees take the role of providing support and business advice to their borrowers throughout the term of the loan.
More information about successive and concurrent loans
Most borrowers take out loans consecutively, meaning that they receive a second loan after having repaid the first. However, sometimes our Lending Partners give out concurrent loans, allowing borrowers to take out one primary loan and a secondary "add-on" loan along with it. These additional loans are typically smaller than the borrower's primary loan and serve a different purpose. We trust our partners to determine whether a borrower has the means to be able to repay a successive or concurrent loan.
Trustee: Rural Action
What are Trustee tiers?
For for more information about Trustee tiers, visit: kivaushub.org/trustee-tiers
Why are you endorsing Lisa?
Southeast Ohio Fiberworks will produce new market opportunities for sheep farmers throughout the Appalachian Ohio region by establishing a much needed supply line for wool products.
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