Thursday, June 26, 2008

In case you're confused, we just adjusted our Field Partner names!

You might notice this week that some of the Kiva Field Partner names have changed a little. We're not trying to confuse you, just trying to standardize!

In the past, we referred to our partners in a variety of ways, either by their full names, abbreviations, or a combination of both. Now, we've changed names to follow this format: "[Full Partner Name]([Acronym]), a partner of [Network]." Whenever the entire partner name was in a language other than English, we abbreviated the entire name (for example, "Fundacion de Asistencia para la Pequena Empresa" turns into "FAPE").

Not only will the new naming convention help Kiva staff stay a little more organized, but it will also allow us to give recognition to the networks the MFIs are partnered with and hopefully allow Kiva to continue building stronger relations with those networks.

Lenders should also note that their loans have still gone to the same organizations even though the name may appear different. All of our databases have been updated with the new naming system, including the Kiva website, so be sure to check the entire MFI name before worrying about the loan's destination.

Happy Lending!