Kiva in Action

In January we announced that we were going to start lending money to Kiva. If you have not checked out this amazing company, we strongly suggest that you should. We are passionate on lending to others and helping others out. We are going to start a new blog series featuring the borrowers that we are lending money too.


Our first feature is the Ampliacion Villa El Polvorin Group from Peru. When we came across their listing we loved the passion and their dream to one day own their own workshop and reminds us a lot of ourselves here at MMD Events. As most of you may know we just moved into our new warehouse and can relate to this group. We are so happy to lend to this wonderful group and wish them all the best!


"Mrs. Isidora Ccallo is 48 years old, lives with her husband and has 3 children. More than 2 years ago she opened a clothes-making store together with her husband. They make men's polo shirts and take them to different departments of Peru to sell. At the beginning, they worked for different workshops, but thanks to their hard work and sacrifice they were able to buy sewing machines, overlockers and other items to later be able to have their own workshop like they had always dreamed. With the loan they will continue investing in fabrics to keep making t-shirts."

Details for Kiva!

Hopefully everyone had a great New Year's day and are ready for what 2011 will bring to everyone. On Saturday we blogged about our new idea on donating to Kiva. As we promised here is how we need everyone's help to make this a huge success.

There are a few different ways that everyone can get involved. The first is that for every new client we receive we will donate $25. The holiday season is a thriving time for engagements, so if you know friends and family members who are newly engaged, send them our way so we can donate money! The second way to get involved includes everyone's participation on Facebook. We will donate .25 cents to every new fan who "Likes" our page. There are tons of people on Facebook so send them our way! Also, we will have "Money Monday's" where for every person who "Likes" our status we will donate an additional .25 cents. At the end of each month we will tally up all our new fans, new likes, and new clients, and we will donate that monthly money to Kiva. Even better, we will let YOU decide where the money will be donated! So everyone check out Kiva, find out where you would like our money to be donated to, and we will set up voting on our Facebook page and vote for your favorite entrepreneur. Once again, invite all your friends and family to get involved. The more poeple involved, money we will donate!

New Year Means New Ideas

When a New Year starts most people make "New Year's Resolutions". Instead of a New Year's resolution, we here at MMD Events have talked about an idea that we want everyone to know about today. This idea starts now and we need everyone's help to make this a success.

A few years ago, right after getting married, Matt and Amanda found an article in an entrepreneurship magazine talking about an organization called Kiva. Many of you probably saw Kiva chosen as one of Oprah's Favorite Things this year, but Kiva was on Matt and Amanda's favorite things list about 7 years ago! Kiva is an organization that empowers individuals to lend to any entrepreneurs across the globe. Matt and Amanda have personally been involved with Kiva for 5 years now and want MMD Events to get involved as well. We understand how to have ideas for a businesses and wanting the businesses to be successful and profitable. We believe in lending through Kiva to help others live out their dreams and be successful. Kiva promotes dignity, accountability, and transparency throughout their company.

So how does Kiva operate? First, Kiva partners with a microfinance institution also known as field partners. Basically the field partners in other countries know the local area, know the clients, and do all the leg work required to get the Kiva loans to the entrepreneurs who are hoping for a loan. The field partners then disburse loans and post a loan request on Kivas website with the entrepreneur's stories, pictures, and loan details. Once that step is completed, lenders (like us) browse the loan request and select which loans they would like to fund. This can start at $25 and can be as much as the entire loan amount. After we give the money to Kiva, the field partners accept the money and use the funds to replenish the loan that they have already made to the entrepreneur. The entrepreneurs must repay their loans to the field partners and then the field partners transfer the fundS to Kiva and credit the appropriate lenders with their loan repayments.

Once again, we believe in this lending because it helps entrepreneurs carry out their dream of starting their own company without putting their family in debt. We also believe in giving locally, not just globally. Every year we are involved with the Gasparilla International Film Festival in which we donate $20,000 which helps Tampa's thriving economy. We are hoping to match that donation this year through Kiva as well.

Check out Kiva's website and stay tuned for more details and we will explain how we need everyone's help to make this a huge success!

Have a Happy New Year!!