A CCT borrower surveys her pineapple field in Manila.
(Photo: Prem Thomas)

In 2009, Steamboat chose its second individual Special Grantee: 2004 Steamboat Scholar Prem Thomas. After spending four years working in finance in NYC as an I-banking analyst and at a civic venture capital fund – Prem was awarded a Special Grant to bring his finance experience to the developing world through Kiva.org a microfinance fellowship at the Center for Community Transformation (CCT) in Manila, Philippines. This marked Steamboat’s second Special Grant to a Steamboat alumnus.

Launched in October 2005 and headquartered in San Francisco, Kiva is the first person-to-person micro-lending marketplace that connects micro-entrepreneurs in developing countries with social investors throughout the world. Kiva works in partnership with local Micro Finance Institution’s, providing capital to these partners in exchange for access to the real individuals in need of funding. As a Kiva Fellow, Prem was assigned to CCT to oversee all aspects of the implementation of a new partnership and collect stories of Kiva borrowers.

Although the Philippines claimed the second most powerful Asian economy in the 1950’s, poverty is now prevalent throughout most of the country. Of over 90 million Filipinos, 35-40% live below the poverty line. In dollar terms, approximately 28 million do not even make $1 a day. The majority of the Country’s poverty exists in Manila, where Prem was based.

Microfinance has proven to be an effective tool for alleviating poverty worldwide and has resulted in numerous microfinance institutions (MFI) in the Philippines. MFI’s such as CCT give the poor access to capital to start and sustain small businesses, therefore allowing many entrepreneurs to improve their family’s quality of life through additional income. In many cases, a small injection of capital and banking services can move borrowers out of poverty.

Prem Thomas

In 2009, Steamboat awarded Prem a Special Grant to support his work as a Kiva Fellow in Manila, Philippines. As a fellow, he was placed at CCT to oversee the implementation of the new microfinance partnership. During his fellowship Prem aimed to:

(Above) Interviewing a CCT borrower who runs a large grocery store with 4 employees.

• Train and educate MFI staff to onboard and track Kiva loans
• Scale borrowing capacity at the partner MFI
• Audit and provide borrower verification for current outstanding loans
• Provide outbound communication to the Kiva lender community
• Create entrepreneur profiles and updates for the Kiva community
• Blog about personal experiences to generate traffic for Kiva.org

As of September 2010, through the Kiva platform, CCT has raised over $350,000 and distributed it to almost 1,000 Filipino entrepreneurs with a 0% default rate.