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Vittana wins “Best Nonprofit” at Seattle 2.0 and Celebrates 2nd Bday

by Katie Gruver

The excitement level is through the roof here at Vittana! And there are three very good reasons for our more-than-usual boisterousness. 1. Last night, Vittana won best non-profit start-up at the Seattle 2.0 Awards. Seattle is known worldwide for its innovative start-up community, and we’re excited and humbled to be

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Getting To Know La Paz

by Mark Andrews
View of La Paz from El Alto

  The first thing I noticed when I flew into the El Alto International Airport (LPB) is that La Paz is really high up. At 13,325 feet, LPB is one of the highest airports in the world, and the direct flight from Miami (8 feet above sea level) gave me

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Your Fellow in Peru

by boleary

Photo of sand paintings during Semana Santa in Peru A little about me: I grew up in Seattle, Washington in a very full house. In addition to my parents, two sisters, two brothers, and grandmother, there was always at least one student from another country living under our roof. Furthermore,

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Why Donate?

by Katie Gruver

On Vittana.org, you can make an individual loan to a student and help them finish school. These loans change lives; there’s no doubt about it. There’s Haward (23) from Nicaragua whose loan helped him become a lawyer and who’s now giving back pro-bono services to his community. There’s Mercy Marilu

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How we can turn $1 into $53

by Katie Gruver
Cost of loan per dollar

Around the Vittana offices, we talk a lot about sustainability, return on investment and (everyone’s favorite word) “leverage”. Buzz words aside, what we’re really about is delivering student loans as efficiently as we can to as many young people as possible. Some organizations talk about providing a 2:1 leverage on

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I’m a Vittana Student Too!

by Isabel

So no, I don’t have a loan from Vittana lenders. But like all of the students who do, Vittana’s support for my learning and development will have a large impact on my life and professional goals. For the next two months, Vittana is giving me the chance to discover more

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The Method to Our Madness

by Katie Gruver

  Yes, Vittana has a website. In fact it’s a pretty good one. The Vittana website facilitates peer-to-peer micro-lending where people (mostly in the United States) provide loans to students in the developing world so that they can attend college and technical school. But we’re not JUST a website; not

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Trip Report: Latin America, Asia and Africa

by Katie Gruver

Our intrepid team of International Partnerships Managers is starting off 2011 by spending a cumulative 82 days in the field. They’ll be visiting 11 countries and meeting with more than 55 microfinance organizations, banks and universities in our quest to continue bringing student lending to the developing world. Together, they’ll

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Vittana Fellows Revealed

by Isabel

You’ve read their posts on the Vittana blog and seen their videos on our YouTube channel, but you may still be wondering—who exactly are these mysterious Vittana Fellows? The Fellows program started fairly informally as a way for friends of the Vittana community to help out during their personal travels

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Unpacking Vittana’s Mission Statement

by Nick Cain

Here at Vittana, our mission statement is our engine.  It’s what gets us moving each day, keeps us emailing late into the night, and inspires many whiteboards’ worth of brainstorming.  The statement itself is pretty straightforward:  “Our mission is to bring student loans to the developing world through the power

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