When you give to someone via Kiva, you’re not actually giving directly to them. It’s more symbolic:

Thus, the direct person-to-person connection Kiva offered was in fact an illusion. Kiva’s lenders were actually backstopping microfinance institutions, and since Kiva and other online giving and lending models pride themselves on their transparency, Mr. Roodman and others suggested it might better explain what its lenders’ money — about $100 million over four years — was really doing.

Kiva does some really great work. This just goes to show that there’s a fine line between simplifying for marketing’s sake and misrepresenting a product. The former can be incredibly important, while the latter can lead to a major backlash, even if the end results are genuinely good, as they are with Kiva.