KIVA.ORG'S PERSUASIVE APPEAL: A BURKEAN ANALYSIS OF CHARITY PERSUASION

Abstract

Kiva.org's (Kiva) success is explained using two rhetorical constructs based on Kenneth Burke's theory of dramatism as tailored to charity appeals: simplification (reducing of the representative anecdote) and completion (redeeming a hierarchy). These two constructs explain Kiva's unprecedented success. Despite being founded five years ago, it has raised $199 million for microfinance institutions (MFI), and has many corporate sponsors, including but not limited to Cisco, Google, Intel, Ernst & Young and Wal-Mart. Considering that many nonprofit organizations (NPOs) fail within their first year, Kiva's success deserves careful attention to the rhetorical strategies that it uses to convince so many people and corporations to give.