Prosper Groups

What are Prosper Groups?

Prosper Groups are a way for tightly affiliated communities to help their members through person to person lending. These affiliations can be social, cultural, ethnic, professional, religious, or any other official or unofficial affiliation professional, educational, athletic, religious, local, or any other way for people to be connected to each other. Groups allow people to join together for the common goal of borrowing money at better rates and give borrowers an additional incentive—the group's reputation—to meet their obligation to repay a Prosper loan.

How do Prosper Groups work?

Each group begins with a designated group leader who is responsible for setting up a group home page and inviting members to Prosper. Group leaders should form groups based on their prior affiliations, such as membership in a club, social organization or religious association. Anyone can be a group leader on Prosper.

Group leaders have two responsibilities:

Set up the group home page
Invite members to join their group

Group leaders are encouraged to invite both people who would like to borrow money and people who can be Prosper lenders into their group. A group leader receives referral awards for each person they invite to Prosper who borrows or for each lender who becomes a winning bidder on the platform. History on Prosper shows that the best-performing groups are based on offline friendships and affiliations.

What are the characteristics of a successful group?

Successful groups have a lower default rate and higher funding rate on their members' loans.

Groups are rated by the collective loan repayment performance of their members, and each group's rating is displayed on the platform, enabling borrowers to join a group and use the group's reputation in order to attract lender bids. Successful groups are those that have a lower-than-average default rate on their members' loans, thereby garnering a higher group rating. The higher group rating, in turn, attracts more and better lender bids, making it more likely that members' loans will get funded.

There are two key indicators that can influence funding rate and default rate for Prosper Groups:

Group leader invitations: History on Prosper has shown that groups in which the group leader has personally invited over 10% of its members typically have a lower default rate and higher funding rate on its members' loans than groups who do not invite members to join.
Group size: Groups with less than 50 members typically have a lower default rate and higher funding rate than groups with greater than 50 members.

How are groups rated and ranked?

Groups are rated by a group rating system which is visible to everyone on Prosper. A group's rating is a measurement of the collective loan repayment performance of the group's members in paying back its Prosper loans. Specifically, the group rating is an expression of a group's performance against expected default rates, based on Experian historical data on similar credit obligations.

Learn more about the group rating system.

Groups are ranked on Prosper's Community page using the following prioritization:

Star rating
Number of active listings
Number of loans

Are there any limitations for groups?

Group leaders are bound by the terms of the Group Leader Registration Agreement. They must also familiarize themselves with Prosper's Rules for Group Leaders policies located on Prosper's policies page. Group leaders may only serve as the leader of one Prosper group.

How do I create a group?

If you are not registered with Prosper, you will need to fill out a quick registration form, and register as a Prosper lender or borrower. Registration is free, and although you do have to register as a Prosper lender or borrower in order to serve as a group leader, you do not have to obtain a loan or bid on any listings in order to become a group leader.

Click "Create a group". There is no fee to become a group leader.

You will start by providing some basic information about your group, including a group name, a group description, a picture, and a longer description telling the world more details about your group.

Once your group information is complete, all of this information will be sent to Prosper's Group Services team, who will review your group application, and make a decision on your group application within a few days. Note: at a minimum, group applications should contain: a short description, a picture, and a longer description before they are submitted for review. Learn more about editing your group profile, description, and pictures. Learn more about editing your group profile, description, and pictures.

Can group leaders create more than one group?

No. Not at this time

What are the most important tasks for a new group leader?

First, a group leader should update their group's home page as much as possible. This is a group leader's voice to both group members and potential lenders, so please spend some time making it attractive, or at least complete. Add some picture and write as much as possible about the purpose of the group in the long description. For example, who can join the group and how they are connected with the group's purpose? The more lenders learn about a group, the more likely they will engage with a group. Learn more about editing your group profile, description, and pictures.

Second, invite people to become members of your group. Prosper makes inviting members easy by allowing group leaders to invite people directly through Prosper's email system. The emails contain a shortcut link and buttons to use in emails and on web sites or blogs. Learn more about inviting new group members.

Can I borrow on Prosper or be a Prosper lender if I'm a group leader?

Yes, group leaders can participate on Prosper as lenders or borrowers, and bid on or obtain loans. Group leaders who are lenders are free to bid on listings of any Prosper borrower, including borrowers who are in your own group. However, group leaders wishing to borrow on Prosper may not do so as a member of their own group; they have to either join a different group or borrow as an "un-grouped" borrower.

Group help

Getting started

Manage your group

Other resources

Other resources

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