Florida Kiva Loan Program

Can a small loan help your native plant nursery? Or a nursery you’d like to have in your community?

The creation of a thousand forests is in one acorn.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

The Native Plant Horticulture Foundation has been approved as a Trustee by Kiva, one of the world’s most popular and successful nonprofit microlending platforms. As a Kiva Trustee, the foundation can apply its extensive industry expertise and connections within the native plant movement to help small native plant businesses obtain no-interest loans for start-up, expansion or sustainability projects.

The foundation is excited to partner with Kiva, a proven provider of opportunity to small businesses worldwide, to bring funding and opportunity to native plant business startups and micro-enterprises seeking to expand and diversity their offerings. Kiva US has funded nearly $60 million in entrepreneurial projects, but very little has gone to native plant businesses. Kiva recognizes the opportunity represented by native plants, both for our environment and for individual entrepreneurs, including women and people of color, who often have little or no access to traditional sources of capital.

Because the foundation’s volunteer base is currently located primarily in Florida, the loan program is limited to Florida-based native plant businesses for now. We would love to hear from small businesses in South Georgia, though, so give us a shout. We might be able to stretch that far.