Kiva is sort-of iffy in some areas, for example pre-dispersal means that most loans are funded long before they're live on the website[1]: when you're loaning $25 to an individual, you're actually just sending money out to the field partner, who have already granted a loan to the individual. Another concern some people have is that because of the way field partners work they can be aggressive with gathering loan repayments as every delinquent loan reflects poorly on the field partner.

Personally I find the amount of good that Kiva does far exceeds the negatives that some people put forward, and while they're far from perfect they are a very well managed charity[2] that I have a lot of confidence in.

[1] They do include this information on each borrowers page though, it's transparent if you know to look for it, but a lot of people don't understand it.

    Loan disbursal can happen anywhere from 60 days before to 90 days 
    after the loan is posted on the Kiva website. The disbursed date indicates 
    the date that the borrower receives their loan funds from the Field Partner.

    Many of Kiva's Field Partners choose to disburse loan funds before 
    the loan request is posted on Kiva. We allow pre-disbursal because 
    it ensures that the funds reach the borrower as soon as they are needed. 
    Loan funds from Kiva lenders then go to backfill that amount and as a 
    lender you assume the risk of the loan. By doing this, our Field Partners
    assume the risk that, if the loan isn't funded by Kiva lenders, the Field 
    Partner has to fund the loan without any funds from Kiva lenders."

[2] http://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=search.summary...

It really is quite convincing.

I used Kiva during one of their "Free $25 Loan" promos. Unfortunately, several months before "my" borrower was able to finish repaying her loan, I received an E-mail saying that she had passed away. The thing is, Kiva still shows the final few months' repayment as having been received.

This made me question the numbers that I was seeing; while it's definitely possible that her family paid everything off, I'm not sure that I trust them.

I don't believe that anything malicious is going here, just misrepresentation.

For this reason I'd much rather support the microfinance institutions themselves (even though Kiva doesn't take a cut).