Beck, ErinBean, Wyatt2023-08-182023-08-182023https://hdl.handle.net/1794/2865259 pagesMicrofinance, the alternative financial system for addressing poverty and other associated issues affecting impoverished individuals, has evolved over the course of the last 50 years. Through this thesis, I investigated how microfinance institutions, such as Kiva, are able to foster support and praise in the face of mixed or inconclusive research about microfinance’s impact on its borrowers and their communities. Using online databases and Google Scholar, I collected and categorized the literature around microfinance’s effects, as well as the incentives behind NGO depictions of their work. This was followed by my analysis, which utilized deductive and inductive content analysis to identify analytical themes that compared and contrasted Kiva’s depictions and the literature on microfinance. Through this analysis, I found that Kiva’s portrayals fail to effectively demonstrate impact, promoting implicit connections between unproven positive outcomes and its work while disguising many of the mixed and negative findings within microfinancial literature. As such, I concluded that Kiva is incentivized by its organizational goals to promote aspects that reflect on itself positively, with its developmental goals side-lined in favor of ensuring that the organization is sustainable and capable of continuous growth. This ultimately leads Kiva to be complacent with known issues of microfinance, focusing on portraying a pragmatic and benevolent self-image to those it is accountable to.en-USCC BY-NC-ND 4.0microfinancepovertyKivamicrocreditdepictionsThesis/Dissertation0009-0000-5686-9379