http://www.crainsdetroit.com/article/20110630/FREE/110639995#

Within three hours of launching Wednesday, a web-based initiative to attract business loans of as little as $25 each brought in $11,450 for five local startups.

Michigan Corps, a nonprofit network of local and global Michiganders committed to positive change in their home state, joined with San Francisco-based Kiva.org, the Miami-based John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and New York-based microlender Accion USA to launch Kiva Detroit through kiva.org/detroit. Kiva launched six years ago in Uganda.

The effort brings to the U.S. Kiva.org’s mission to connect people through lending to alleviate poverty, with the Detroit launch marking the beginning of its expansion across the country.

The site enables metro Detroit residents and supporters to provide local startups loans of as little as $25.

The Knight Foundation has committed $250,000 to match individuals’ loans made through the site to Detroit’s small businesses, which gives the Kiva Detroit initiative the potential to bring in at least $500,000 for small businesses in the region. Accion, which provides microloans and financial education to low- and moderate-income individuals, is underwriting all Detroit microloans, analyzing loans for risk and administering approved loans in support of the Kiva Detroit initiative.