Back to jobs

RTP Volunteer Team Leader

Any

What do Kiva Volunteer Team Leaders do?

Lead a team of up to 35 volunteer translators and/or editors 

  • Motivate and support team members to encourage their consistent loan review 
  • Support a diverse and multicultural community of volunteers located worldwide 
  • Foster connections between the volunteer community and Kiva headquarters

Act as a first line of support for volunteers to keep Kiva’s processes efficient

  • Write and post weekly team updates that include information from Kiva headquarters
  • Develop creative approaches to strengthen team engagement
  • Maintain regular email contact with team members to answer basic questions, provide guidance, and solve problems
  • Promote the use of Kiva’s loan review resources and escalate policy and technical questions to Kiva staff
  • Monitor team productivity

Help shape the future of the volunteer loan review program at Kiva

  • Exchange ideas and perspectives with other Volunteer Team Leaders and Kiva staff during regularly scheduled conference calls
  • Create, document, and share best practices for future Volunteer Team Leaders 

Successful candidates must be:

  • Proficient and comfortable with written English
  • Able to commit to 4-6 hours per week for 13 months 
  • Able to attend 2-3 conference calls annually with fellow Team Leaders and/or Kiva staff 
  • Organized and able to keep up with deadlines 
  • Self-motivated and comfortable working remotely 
  • Able to regularly check and respond to emails 
  • Able to provide feedback and instructions over email
  • Able to work collaboratively and establish targets for themselves and their team
  • Able to communicate well and build working relationships with colleagues they've never met
  • Comfortable with internet, email, and basic office applications such as word processing and spreadsheets

Location of the role: Anywhere, but can join conference calls where differing time zones are prioritized

Experience/skills in at least one of the following is preferred:

  • Volunteer management 
  • Working with or managing geographically distributed teams
  • Spanish, Russian, French, or Portuguese translation (not required, but a plus)

Requirements:

  • Must be at least 18 years of age to apply.
  • Must have access to a computer, as the online platform that Kiva volunteers use is not mobile or tablet-friendly. 
  • Must be willing to sign a volunteer agreement that covers protecting the privacy of Kiva borrowers, as well as a standard media release.
  • Must be willing to work remotely 

Successful applicants must complete a combined language assessment and policy review exercise. Afterward, applicants may be invited to an interview process. Successful completion of the test and interview process leads to official training for the role beginning in late July/August 2025. 

Important Notes:

  • If you already have a kiva.org lending account, please be sure to apply with the same email associated with your account.
  • This page will time out after a significant period of inactivity, and your application will not be saved. You may consider copying, pasting, and saving your responses in another document.
  • Please sign up only for the Review and Translation Program volunteer opportunity that you prefer. If you sign up for waitlists for multiple volunteer opportunities, we will be unable to account for your preference, as our various languages and roles have different onboarding timelines. 

 

Apply for this job

*

indicates a required field

Resume/CV*

Accepted file types: pdf, doc, docx, txt, rtf

Cover Letter

Accepted file types: pdf, doc, docx, txt, rtf

Select...

Like many non-profits, Kiva works with volunteers to further its mission. 

Select...
Select...

Participation in this program requires signing this agreement before beginning volunteer training.

We ask that you please take time to review the agreement and decide whether you are willing to sign upon successful completion of your application and testing.

Select...

What are personal pronouns?

Personal pronouns are the pronouns other individuals would use when referring to you. We've provided a list of examples, but you are welcome to self-describe in the following section. You can select multiple sets of pronouns. 

Enter your profession. If you are a student, please let us know and enter your field of study below.

If you are a student, enter your field of study.

Availability *

As mentioned in the description, this volunteer opportunity requires a commitment of about 4-6 hours per week for 13 months. When do you generally foresee being able to fulfill this commitment? (Please select as many as apply.)

Select...

Please select the number of hours you are available weekly for volunteering with Kiva.

Select...
Select...
Kiva is interested in the linguistic diversity of this volunteer program. What do you consider to be your first language(s)? (Please select all that apply) *
Please select any Kiva language(s) in which you have proficiency.

As a Kiva Loan Review Team Leader, your communications with your team members would be conducted over email. As part of your application process, we would like to get a feel for your email communication style and how you would approach various scenarios that might arise with your team members during the course of the year.

Please compose a brief email – no longer than two paragraphs – that you would send in these situations. Imagine yourself as a Team Leader, and be yourself!


Scenario 1
 
You have been a Team Leader for four months. One of your team members, Sarah, consistently edits 15 loans/week, which is a good productivity level. This person has been a Kiva volunteer for about a year. While reviewing your Team Leader report at the beginning of the month, you notice that last month, this team member only edited three loans total. Compose a check-in email to send to Sarah.

A new member, Joe, has just been added to your team by your Kiva staff coordinator. You have been asked to welcome him to the team.

Compose a friendly outreach email to introduce yourself to Joe and welcome him to the team. (Kiva staff has already provided him with the training he needs to get started as a volunteer.)

Kiva’s Lending Partners are posting more loans than usual, and your team's productivity has dropped in the last couple of weeks. We have loans waiting to be edited that are over five days old, and more are coming in all the time. (Loans generally get reviewed within an average of two days.) 

Compose an email to encourage your team to help reduce the number of loans waiting to be edited.