Not what it used to be - Anonymous employee Kiva Employee Review

3.0
17 Sept 2018
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

There was no place like Kiva. Best team, culture, passion, talent out there. People deeply cared about making the world a better place and were doing everything possible to make that happen. You woke up excited to go to work because your coworkers were your family, and you were all in it together to truly change lives. There was absolutely no better work environment out there! Everyone wanted to work for Kiva, and you felt deeply appreciative if you were one of the "lucky" ones who landed a job. The salary was low, but you knew that working for a nonprofit, and everyone was okay with it because the culture and outstanding benefits made up for the difference in salary that you could be making at a for-profit in the Bay Area.

Cons

The new CEO has sadly changed everything. Rather than recognizing that the problem was with a lack of strategic direction from management, the CEO blamed all problems on staff. He is bringing in tons of people from the outside with no input from the current team and taking away responsibilities from current talented staff, giving all new projects to outside contractors. He claims "new" ideas as his own instead of recognizing that lower level staff have been working on these ideas for years and just never had management give them the green light to make them happen. The new exec team is largely very corporate and doesn't show signs that they are authentically there for the mission. It is run like any other tech company now and focused on technology, technology, technology instead of the mission (if people wanted to work for the latest technology, they could make 2x the salary at basically any other company in the Bay Area, so this is ridiculous). There is no input from the staff and existing Kiva users on how things can improve. Instead, it's the "we need to revamp everything" approach in order to be more like Amazon, Facebook, etc. Half the staff has turned over in the last ~12 months. Terrible morale that is not acknowledged by the exec team despite constant attempts to get them to talk about it. All people that are still there that aren't recent hires are looking for new jobs.

avatar
Kiva Response
7y
While it is difficult to hear, thanks for your candor. I care deeply about the team and would welcome the chance to hear from you directly. While I am a new member of the Executive Leadership Team, I am interested to hear your thoughts. I want us to strike the right balance of non profit and technology in order to alleviate poverty. Please don't hesitate to reach out to me via email to schedule a time to chat. pam@kiva.org

Explore other reviews about Kiva

5.0
15 Apr 2025
Anonymous contractor
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Highly mission driven, incredible culture. You feel like you're making a difference.

Cons

Nothing bad to say - lots of change over the years but thriving and exciting to hear about road ahead.

4.0
19 Oct 2025
Anonymous contractor
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Very friendly and welcoming work environment

Cons

Typical for non-profit, but compensation was not great

See reviews by: Helpful|Rating|Date|All