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Author's profile photo Colin Kraczkowsky

“Loans that Change Lives” with Jessica Jackley – an SAP Intern’s Perspective

Email from SAPsv, this ought to be good.

My brain automatically categorizes those messages as High Importance.

Palo Alto…Café 1…TED speaker? I’m in!

I immediately open the .ics file and click Add to Calendar.

Jessica Jackley – sounds familiar. Kiva? – Is that one of those new sugar supplements? Oh, it’s a pioneer in crowdsourced microfinancing? Let’s check it out.

Day of the Event:

What started as an interest in seeing a notable public speaker, soon became an introduction to the concept of microfinancing and a catalyst for wanting to do something. The journey Jessica Jackley endured in starting Kiva Microfunds – which I learned is a nonprofit organization funding low-income and underserved entrepreneurs around the globe – is not only an inspirational recounting of a time in her life but, beyond that, a tangible call-to-action. Starting with nothing, literally nothing since she quit her job to go intern at a nonprofit in Africa, Jessica shared how Kiva’s founding mission, “to connect people through lending to alleviate poverty”, grew as a response to the stories of the businessmen and women she met while serving.

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Audience listening intently – myself included

From these stories, Jessica and fellow humanitarian Matt Flannery, who would later become Kiva’s first CEO, learned that some of these businesses only needed a small investment to start growing, and the microfinance project called Kiva was born!

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Jessica Jackley on stage with Roger Quinlan

What made her story so impactful was its total lack of the façade of the perfect start-up narrative. Jessica and her fellow co-founders made mistakes. They didn’t know what exactly they were doing. They rolled with the punches and evolved the plan as obstacles approached. What they did have was a targeted, defined goal – help these seven individuals get the money they needed to begin growing their businesses. It was this simple mission in 2005 that led to the Kiva Microfunds organization as we know it today, with over 1.3 million lenders serving 82 countries and projected to generate over $1 billion in loans within the next few years.

I left “Loans That Change Lives ~ SAP Talk with Kiva Co-Founder Jessica Jackley” empowered; rewarded with not only the opportunity to listen to an amazing speaker but, the encouragement that anything I wanted I really could make happen. An image that stuck with me for the rest of the day and hopefully will for the rest of my life was imbedded in a saying Jessica shared at the conclusion of her talk. While her version was much more eloquent than my rendition, it will serve it justice. The message was this – a path doesn’t form until people start taking it.Could there be a more inspirational message to kick off SAP’s Month of Service?

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Data Visualization of Kiva loan activity

from 2005 to 2011

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It has been my goal and passion over the years to share stories of the entrepreneurs I’ve met with honesty, integrity, and transparency.

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Photos by Rohit Kapoor

www.rhtkpr.com

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      10 Comments
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      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Thank you for sharing your experience from the event, Colin! I really enjoyed the powerful message that you've highlighted from Jessica Jackley. I look forward to hearing about how Jessica's presentation continues to encourage you during Month of Service and while at SAP!

      Author's profile photo Colin Kraczkowsky
      Colin Kraczkowsky
      Blog Post Author

      Thank you and SAPsv for the opportunity to write about it. I'm looking forward to the projects my team is serving on during MoS and for future Speaker Series!

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Great blog, Colin, and looking forward to weeding out the San Bruno mountains with you in a couple of weeks 🙂

      Author's profile photo Colin Kraczkowsky
      Colin Kraczkowsky
      Blog Post Author

      Thank you Jan - the SSF Weed Warriors project is about to have some super troopers from the SAP Analytics group 🙂

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      I love this blog post, Colin! You captured it perfectly. Thank you for sharing your experience.

      Author's profile photo Colin Kraczkowsky
      Colin Kraczkowsky
      Blog Post Author

      Thank you for your encouragement Magen! I'm glad to hear that other people had a similar experience 🙂

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      What an awesome story! Thank you for sharing this Colin! Very happy to hear that you were empowered and inspired coming out of her talk! Reading this was certainly a great way to start my Tuesday!

      Author's profile photo Colin Kraczkowsky
      Colin Kraczkowsky
      Blog Post Author

      Thank you Jo, glad to have supplied the positive note to kick-off the week 🙂

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Thanks for sharing your perspective Colin! I definitely felt empowered by Jessica as well. Glad you enjoyed it!

      Author's profile photo Colin Kraczkowsky
      Colin Kraczkowsky
      Blog Post Author

      Absolutely, excited for what's on the roadmap for future SAP Talks