The Gardnerville Elementary School students who started the Kiva Loan ripple effect in Dana Rosingus’ fifth-grade class.
Fifty dollars went a long way in 15 years for a group of fifth-graders from Gardnerville Elementary school. Together their investment created a ripple effect around the world, still going today.
In 2010, students in Dana Rosingus’ fifth-grade class each collected $1, totaling $25. Rosingus matched their total and together they donated $50 to an organization called Kiva Loans, which provides microloans to entrepreneurs in developing countries.
“What makes this story remarkable is not just the initial act of generosity, but what has happened since,” said Rosingus.
It all started with the book, “Three Cups of Tea,” by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin, Rosingus was reading in class.
“He was talking about the importance of coming together as a community and raising money for schools,” she said. “He did it by collecting pennies and investing it into something bigger.”
That sparked an idea in Rosingus’ classroom that they could make an impact too and they began researching organizations before coming across Kiva Loans.
Kiva Loans is a nonprofit platform that offers microloans to individuals and small business around the world, mostly in developing countries and underserved communities. The loans are typically small, as little as $25, gathered from multiple lenders, and are offered with no interest, no fees, and no collateral. Each time a loan is repaid, the funds are re-loaded to someone new and continues to support and grow businesses, families, and opportunities. Visit www.kiva.org for more information.
“You can choose if you want to give it to a male, female, a group, and the type of business,” said Rosingus. “So, we got to choose as a class what we wanted to do.”
The class’s donation helped support a loan for a group of women running a small business in areas facing economic hardship. The funds were used for things such as; weaving and cloth supplies, dressmaking tools, retail goods, livestock, and even to help cover personal housing and essential living expenses.
Rosingus said the initial loan from the students in 2010 has been repaid in full every time over the last decade and half- a powerful testament to the resilience and responsibility of the borrowers and to the ongoing impact of small-scale giving.
“This has been happening continuously for 15 years,” said Rosingus. “Those fifth graders are now young adults in their mid-twenties, but their decision as children continues to grow.”
Rosingus said that $50 has helped dozens of entrepreneurs in countries like the Philippines Uganda, Peru, and more, helping people build business, support their families, and strengthen their communities.
Today, Rosingus continues those teachings about the impact the first donation had to her first graders. She said each year, she talks about what her students did in 2010 with her new students, and how the money continues to grow and help make a difference. A lesson is made around the value of money and more.
“It all started as a way to teach kids about empathy, economics, and the idea that small actions can have a big impact,” she said. “But it became something much more, a real-life lesson in how kindness grows over time. As of today, that classroom’s tiny spark of generosity continues to shine proving that even the smallest hands can help change the world.”