Press
2013
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Microfinance From Vittana Helps Students in ParaguayOpen Equal FreeFebruary 4th, 2013 "This gap between the need for educational loans and students’ dreams is being addressed by the micro-financing program offered by Vittana, a Seattle-based Non-Profit organization, which provides educational loans to bright and motivated students like Ben |
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YU social entrepreneur students help with Vittana, nonprofit micro-loaningDeseret NewsJanuary 10th, 2013 "BYU students are helping an innovative micro-loan company make college affordable for impoverished students around the world." |
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Loans for students in developing nations help fight against povertyDeseret NewsJanuary 7th, 2013 "the average loan recipient triples their income. “For many that means going from two to three dollars a day to ten,” |
2012
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8 Companies that Make the Holiday Season MerrierForbesDecember 12th, 2012 "GeekWire raised more than $32,000 for Vittana’s education-oriented student loan program, with various companies in town pooling their funds in a bit of friendly philanthropic competition." |
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Vinod Khosla, Rich Barton lead Vittana’s new ‘League of Extraordinary Tech Superheroes’GeekWireDecember 6th, 2012 "Venture capital Vinod Khosla and Zillow co-founder Rich Barton have joined forces to bankroll Vittana, the Seattle non-profit that’s attempting to wipe out youth poverty through education-oriented microloans." |
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Why I walked away from $1 million (and why you should help us combat youth poverty)GeekWireNovember 22nd, 2012 |
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Interview with Kushal ChakrabartiNew InternationalistSeptember 1st, 2012 "5 young people around the globe cannot afford to pay to completepost-secondary education or training, leaving the productive capacity of the next generation hugely underdeveloped. |
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Another Unusual $100,000 Birthday Present (Plus: Free Round-Trip Anywhere in the World)Tim Ferriss BlogJuly 19th, 2012 In lieu of gifts this year, my birthday wish is to help poor youth in developing nations finish school. This breaks the cycle of poverty and creates problem solvers in places with problems that affect communities, entire countries, and the world at large. |
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Brooke Burke's Girls Night Out GiveawayModern MomMay 17th, 2012 "Good Carma Studio and Crunchies helped throw a very special Ladies Night at Brooke Burke's home to benefit the non-profit Vittana, an organization that helps young people around the world to get loans to finish their education." |
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Guest column: Let’s celebrate the geeks who ‘GiveBig’GeekWireMay 2nd, 2012 "On the eve of the GeekWire’s big Seattle 2.0 Awards bash, I’m excited to see Seattle become a hub for our very own hard-headed idealists: techies and startup geeks borrowing the best of business and philanthropy to change the world — scalably, sustainabl |
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Vittana Funds Education Through MicroloansWall Street Journal BlogApril 27th, 2012 "Vittana, a digital “microloan” nonprofit, aims to helps young students around the world get out of poverty. For as little as $25, people can make a loan to a student in developing countries to help them get to college." |
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On International Women's Day, give the gift of educationCool Mom PicksMarch 8th, 2012 "In honor of International Womens Day, Vittana has set a very lofty goal of funding tuition loans for 100 impoverished female students" |
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Social Entrepreneur Says 'We Don't Need Facebook for Dogs'ForbesJanuary 24th, 2012 "Nothing summarized the Intersection Event better than Kushal Chakrabarti’s comment halfway through the day. Lobbying for the audience award of $5,000 for his social enterprise Vittana, he said, “We don’t need Facebook for dogs. Do something that matters. |
2011
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Google Joins with Seattle AngelsGeekWireDecember 14th, 2011 Vittana, the Seattle non-profit facilitating micro-loans to students in developing countries, has received a $250,000 grant from Google. |
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Social or Cultural Entrepreneurship: An Argument for a New DistinctionStanford Social Innovation ReviewDecember 8th, 2011 [Vittana] is proving that there is a market for other lenders, and is increasing hope and supercharging educational expectations among these communities. The former is more of a market innovation; the latter is an affirmation of potential. |
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The Loan of a LifetimeThe Global JournalDecember 1st, 2011 The brilliance of Vittana is that everyone whether in the developed or the developing world has some connection to education. That is the first step. If a lender can find common ground with those in need, they are more likely to lend--and lend, and lend. |
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Nick Cain: Vittana's First 1500 StudentsMicrocredit Summit 2011November 13th, 2011 Read the paper Nick Cain presented in association with Vittana's presentation on the panel "Empowering the Children of Microentrepreneurs with Primary and Secondary Education, College Scholarships and Loans, and Financial Services for Their Businesses" |
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Vittana Means Opportunity for StudentsPop!TechAugust 11th, 2011 In 2008, PopTech Social Innovation Fellow Kushal Chakrabarti presented his project, Vittana, on stage at PopTech. Three years later, the non-profit has announced their 1,000th student loan since launch. |
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Investing in Students and in Education GloballyNPR: KQEDAugust 8th, 2011 With all the discussion about how we need to rethink elements of the education system — in the U.S. and elsewhere — it’s important to remember that for most people around the world, education is not just a privilege, it’s a necessity. |
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Student Loans via MicrofinanceRainmakers.TVJuly 31st, 2011 If you give young people earning $3-4/day a chance, they're not going to give it up. And over 99% of students repay. |
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Greatest Person Of The Day: Kushal Chakrabarti And Vittana Revolutionize Student LoansThe Huffington PostJune 13th, 2011 "Since 2008, Kushal and Vittana have helped a 1,000 students in 11 countries finish school. Incredibly, 99 percent of Vittana's partnering students repay their loans in full, and many of them start saving up while they're still in school." |
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Vittana Named "Best Non-Profit Startup" At Seattle 2.0 AwardsSeattle 2.0May 6th, 2011 "We are reaching 1,000 students. But there is so much more to be done. When you think about the need in this world for education, it is not 1,000, it is 100,000, it is a million. That's what we're out to achieve." |
2010
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Rwandan Education Ministry Could Cut All Scholarships For University StudentsChristian Science MonitorOctober 6th, 2010 "During the nerd rockfest that was the Clinton Global Initiative, Vittana announced that it would give 10,000 loans of $1,000 each to students in Africa. In a few months, Rwandan students may be asking, "Can you add us to the list?" |
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Vittana CEO Named Keynote Speaker At SOCAP 2010Social Capital Markets 2010October 4th, 2010 "Kushal Chakrabarti, co-founder and CEO of Vittana, is a keynote speaker with Matt Flannery, co-founder and CEO of Kiva, and Jacqueline Novogratz, founder and CEO of Acumen Fund." |
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Vittana/Africa: Bringing Student Loans to AfricaClinton Global InitiativeSeptember 22nd, 2010 "[Vittana] will help 10,000 students complete the "last mile" of their education. With about $1,000, these students can gain real, employable skills in fields such as nursing, law enforcement, and IT, changing the entire trajectory of their lives." |
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Microfinance For Students: Making The GradeThe EconomistSeptember 9th, 2010 "Finding new ways to fund poor students in emerging markets has become a hotbed of innovation. Vittana, founded three years ago by Kushal Chakrabarti, is raising loans for students in five countries, with more soon to follow." |
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Vittana CEO Named One Of Seattle's Top 40 Under 40Puget Sound Business JournalAugust 10th, 2010 "What motivates me is do something that is useful," Chakrabarti says. "We need to be kind and genuine in all that we do. But, at the same time, this isn't a big 'Kumbaya' fuzz-fest. We need to make real things happen." |
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Haward: Before, After and Paying It ForwardThe Huffington Post Jun 2010June 30th, 2010 |
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Vittana Connects Students In Developing Nations With Tiny Lenders WorldwideLos Angeles TimesJune 12th, 2010 "As she stood onstage at her graduation ceremony in Managua, Nicaragua, Luceymi Maria Lopez Lopez described how the diploma felt in her hand. "Grandioso," she said. "Superbien." "I never thought I would be able to finish," Lopez said." |
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Crowd-Funded Student Loans: Vittana Brings Microfinance To Campuses WorldwidePolitics DailyApril 28th, 2010 "This reality is familiar to Nardith Torres Marcelo, a 23-year-old mother in Peru who dreamed of becoming a nurse. After graduating high school, Marcelo enrolled in technical school but had to drop out to work full-time and care for her son." |
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9 Ways To Do Good With 5 Minutes Or $25MashableApril 17th, 2010 "If you care about higher education, this microlending site might be right up your alley." |
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5 Social Capitalists Who'll Change The WorldFast CompanyFebruary 1st, 2010 "We're jump-starting a global system of access to higher education, says Chakrabarti, 28-year-old founder of Vittana. It has made some of the first-ever student loans in Vietnam, Peru, Paraguay, Nicaragua, and soon Cambodia." |
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10 Most Innovative Finance CompaniesFast CompanyJanuary 1st, 2010 "The pioneering education microfinance outfit has made the first-ever student loans in Peru, Paraguay, Nicaragua, Mongolia, and Vietnam. Although it's less than a year old and still small -- a few hundred students -- the startup has drawn accolades." |
2009
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Developing Peer-To-Peer Lending For CollegeFox Business NetworkDecember 20th, 2009 |
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College Loans As Development AidThe New York TimesDecember 6th, 2009 "If you're trying to raise standards of living," Mr. Ogden said, "making an education loan is probably a better way of doing that than lending another $100 to an illiterate and unskilled woman to open another roadside stand." |
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Vittana: Student Loans And A New Generation Of MicrofinanceNext BillionNovember 20th, 2009 "With such a sharp and well-defined business model and powerful supporters, this organization may be well on its way to making a significant impact in the world of microfinance. It may also represent a way forward for the next generation in microfinance." |
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#1 Game-Changer in PhilanthropyThe Huffington PostNovember 19th, 2009 "Realizing that education is the quickest route out of poverty, Vittana aims to make it easier for poor families to send their children to school." |
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"Service Can Start Small, Global Social Entrepreneurs Say"Mormon TimesNovember 8th, 2009 "Although only 1 1/2 years old, the program is already flourishing in Nicaragua, Peru, Bolivia and Mongolia, Chakrabarti said. "The power of what we as individuals, we as a community can do is really amazing." |
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Vittana Partners With Facebook's fbFund REVfbFundSeptember 1st, 2009 |
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Amazon.com Veterans Back Vittana Educational LoansThe Seattle TimesJuly 28th, 2009 "While microcredit has made great strides, says Vittana CEO Kushal Chakrabarti, it hasn't lifted poor entrepreneurs into the middle class. That's usually left to the next generation, so the first chance borrowers get, they send their kids to school." |
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Pay $5, Fund A New StartupTechFlashFebruary 26th, 2009 People who visit the site can choose to make small loans to these students to help them complete their educations. |
2008
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Vittana CEO Named 2008 PopTech Social Innovation FellowPop!TechOctober 27th, 2008 |