At this time in 2008, the social entrepreneurs at Kiva didn't expect their person-to-person microfinance site to form cause marketing alliances for several years.
That all changed last fall when the group was contacted by Janell Holas, a passionate Kiva lender who happened to be in charge of launching Purex Complete 3 in 1 laundry sheets.
Holas said she saw a great fit with the brand: "Purex is changing laundry, Kiva is changing lives." She wanted to enable 3 in 1 buyers to fund Kiva loans by entering UPC codes online.
Fortunately, Kiva "had been putting some things in place to enable lending outside of the four walls of the Kiva website,". said Development Director Bennett Grassano. After much consideration, Kiva's leadership decided that this was a chance to get some valuable "early learning" along with $50,000 in Purex funding. (Once the loans have been repaid, the $50,000 reverts to Kiva to use as it sees fit.)
The Purex site does an impressive job of explaining the Purex Changes Lives program (which celebrity Angie Harmon helped launch via PR and social media).
Not surprisingly, most of the funding for the Purex launch (the biggest in the company's history) was dedicated to explaining the unique 3 in 1 product.
So far traffic and redemptions for the Kiva program have been slow to build. (For example, none of the "Mom entrepreneurs" depicted on the site have garnered more than a handful of supporters.)
"We realized there would have to be a big educational element," said Holas. "We feel that it will resonate with our consumers over time and hope to reinvest with Kiva."
Foundation. Talk about creativity: 
