If you’re living in or have lived in or feel very strongly tied to the great state of Virginia, we invite you to join the Team Virginia Kiva.org lending team.
Maybe you’re reading this and you’re not yet a Kiva lender. You can join Team Virginia and become a Kiva lender all at the same time. Or go register as a Kiva lender – and then come join Team Virginia.
Why would you want to do these things?
Kiva.org enables you to make direct person-to-person connections with small business entrepreneurs all over the developing world, by lending them as little as $25. Lending through Kiva.org is an extremely satisfying way to make a difference.
Team Virginia, a Kiva.org lending team, gives you a way to be associated with other Virginians who are making these rewarding connections through Kiva.org.
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We don’t care about your politics, your religious beliefs, or your eating habits.
Team Virginia is a team of tolerance. Our team is formed around the celebration of (1) being Virginians, and (2) being fortunate enough to be able to make a difference through Kiva. One of the best things about this team, in my opinion, is seeing all of the diverse interests and backgrounds we all have.
And just so you know — we don’t actually have a strict residency requirement for this team. No one’s going to check your documents as you come in the door. 
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Why am I so happy to be here in Virginia?
Virginia offers just about everything I need – access to good employment opportunities, beautiful rural countryside, lots of recreation, and a very rich historical context.
I’m living in the middle of history. I can’t throw a Virginia Pine cone without hitting a Virginia State Historical Highway Marker. Can’t drive anywhere without running into some president’s birthplace or favorite homestead.
Here in Team Virginia territory I’m awash in the echoes of the voices of our founding fathers — and the voices of the slaves that built so much of Virginia’s foundation and historical legacy. I can hear the voices of the Cherokee and other native peoples who once called the land I live on home.
If I listen carefully, I can hear the terrible sounds of cannon, musket and hand-to-hand combat that pitted brother against brother and state against state during the war that would ultimately define our young nation. So much of that happened right here – right where my dogs rip and run every morning.
So that’s cool. It’s good to call Virginia home.
What does Virginia mean to you?
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Many of us Virginians are happy, for various reasons, to call the Commonwealth home.
But maybe you don’t live here any more. Then it’s still okay to be a member of Team Virginia.
Maybe you’re stationed in Virginia as a proud member of the U.S. Army, Navy, Marines, or Coast Guard. You’re far from home, but you’re proud to serve your country here in the Commonwealth, knowing that what you do makes a difference both here and abroad.
We want you as a member of Team Virginia.
Maybe you’re from somewhere else, going to school here, at Hampton University, or UVA, or Virginia Tech, or Old Dominion University, or Virginia Commonwealth University, or Mary Washington College, or Norfolk State, or William and Mary, or George Mason…or at any number of other fine institutions of higher learning here in Virginia. Maybe you’re paying out-of-state tuition. You certainly qualify to be a member of Team Virginia.
Or maybe you just drive yourself into Virginia from somewhere else five or six days a week — just to make a living. You’re spending 50% or more of your waking hours here, or on the road to and from. Heck — you qualify to be a member of Team Virginia.
Maybe your parents met and fell in love here. Virginia is for lovers, after all. Then it’s still okay for you to be a member of Team Virginia.
Or maybe you just like making Kiva loans to borrowers named Virginia…
Virginia Flores Gutierrez
Virginia Francisca Salgado
…then it’s still okay to be a member of Team Virginia.
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Team Virginia is putting the “common” in Commonwealth. We’re a team of diverse, loan-distributing do-gooders, all with some physical or emotional tie to the great state of Virginia.
Come do some good with us.
