Louisville Receives Second Kiva Fellow

PRESS RELEASE - April 1st, 2015
Second Louisville Kiva Fellow starting June 1st
Louisville, KY - In November of 2014 Louisville became the 9th Kiva City www.kiva.org/
louisville ahead of both NYC and San Francisco scheduled to launch later in 2015. In just
one year the Louisville region has seen over $170,000 in 0% interest loans to small
businesses through the Kiva Zip platform.
Central to all of the Kiva activity in a new Kiva City are the individuals who play the role of
Kiva Fellow. Access Ventures is excited to announce that Louisville will receive yet
another Kiva Fellow this June. Josie Raymond, a louisville native, will start a 12 month
term on June 1st. With the addition of a second Kiva Fellow we expect to see well over 30
new loans throughout the region.
Josie is an 8th-generation Kentuckian on both sides of her family, and proud to return to
her hometown of Louisville. Vexed by stories of educational inequity, she joined Teach For
America and taught creative writing and reading at middle schools in Indianapolis. From
there, she moved to Oakland, CA to lead the academic department of a nonprofit called
College Track that prepares low-income high school students of color to be the first in
their families to go to and graduate from college.
Access Ventures has been raising funds for this role since the launch of Kiva City
Louisville. Funding a local kiva fellow for a 12 month term had never been done before
Louisville in 2014. Josie will now be the 4th locally funded fellow in the nation. If you are
interested in becoming a borrower on Kiva Zip, or contributing to our local kiva fellow fund
via a tax deductible donation, please contact David Taliaferro.
Access Ventures is an impact-investment group that deploys holistic investments to see
communities flourish. Our vision is to impact the world by helping all people, communities
and businesses realize their full potential. We provide capital to the best solutions and
organizations with significant potential for impact within the community. We create
tailored and holistic investment strategies that meet a variety of needs with a layered and
integrated capital approach predicated on our principle belief that all people matter. We
step into challenging situations, wrestle with its complexities, and create holistic solutions
that enable human flourishing.
Media Contact:
David Taliaferro
502.410.5875
[email protected]
www.accessventures.org
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