Kiva reviews

4.2

95% would recommend to a friend

(110 total reviews)
avatar

Vishal Ghotge

100% approve of CEO

60% positive business outlook

Kiva has an employee rating of 4.2 out of 5 stars, based on 110 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have an excellent working experience there. The Kiva employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Financial Services industry (3.7 stars).

Reviews by job title

110 reviews
5.0
Oct 19, 2019

Intern

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Great people, mission, overall structure. You feel like you’re making a true difference.

Cons

None that I can think of.

avatar
Kiva Response
6y
Thanks so much for your review. The leadership team at Kiva appreciates all of the work of our interns and fellows and intend for each of you to have a career enhancement experience during your time at Kiva.
4.0
Nov 27, 2018

Intern

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Amazing people and learning experiences. If you have never had a real job this will teach you everything you need to know for when you enter the workforce.

Cons

Unpaid....a lot of work and responsibility yet still unpaid. I understand that its a nonprofit but they are very dependent on their interns which isnt sustainable.

avatar
Kiva Response
7y
Thanks so much for your post. Thanks so much for your hard work at Kiva. We are definitely reviewing our intern strategy going forward based on feedback from you and other interns. I’m happy that most of our interns experience such a resume enhancing experience at Kiva. We would love to chat further with you, please reach out to shana@kiva.org directly. I know she would appreciate discussing your experience.
4.0
May 16, 2018

There's no place like Kiva

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Kiva is a place where you'll feel welcome, included, and even loved. Everyone who works there is driven by a passion for helping people, for making positive change in the world. It's a young crowd with a lot of energy and zest. They are earnest and always looking for ways to improve systems, always focused on how to better serve borrowers and lenders. The mission is incredible and everyone is bought in. Work-life balance is amazing, with flexible hours and options to work from home on certain days if you need to. The benefits are generally fantastic, with an option to take a trip to visit a field partner every other year. I feel honored to have worked there, and will always cherish that experience -- there's really no place like Kiva.

Cons

Transparency is a core value at Kiva, but sometimes I felt it went overboard. It's not that transparency is necessarily a bad thing, but the culture of transparency sort of led to an overly democratic structure with too many stakeholders involved in every decision, which makes it difficult to be efficient. Leadership in general was weak, although they've gone through a period of transition at the top for a few years now which is probably the reason, so hopefully the new CEO is helping. If you want to work in nonprofits, you're obviously not driven by salary, but it seemed like Kiva is on the low end even for nonprofits. Kiva also relies on interns to keep running, and these interns swap out every 4-6 months. That means that you're retraining people, explaining basic things from scratch, and maybe shifting responsibilities based on intern competencies every 4-6 months. It can be difficult to plan and grow with this system. There are not a lot of growth opportunities at Kiva -- coupled with the low salaries, that leads to a lot of turnover even though everyone seems to love it there.

avatar
Kiva Response
7y
Thanks so much for your review. As a new leader, I appreciate your feedback and everything you mentioned above is being reviewed over the next year. If you have other thoughts, please don’t hesitate to reach out pam@kiva.org
Viewing 61 - 63 of 110 Reviews

Glassdoor has 229 Kiva reviews submitted anonymously by Kiva employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Kiva is right for you.