Kiva.org has pioneered the use of online crowdfunding to support small no-interest loans to low-income entrepreneurs and students around the world to alleviate poverty. Its platform directly connects individual lenders to specific borrowers through either mobile-payment systems or Kiva partners on the ground. But like many such online ventures, it faces a participation problem: Many Kiva members sign up only to never lend or to make just one loan and then never return. But the lending-teams…

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