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For your enjoyment and education, we request goodies from manufacturers and update you on our search. We seek interesting promotional items, foodstuffs, and household items which strike us as innovative, unique, timely or quality improvements on a classic theme.
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Super Bowl XL, check received for free soda and chips.
∗Now for Super Bowl XL, more free soda and chips!
∗Lots of Goodies at the Green Festival in DC this Weekend
∗Make some Watermelon Gazpacho!
∗Frugality for Small Family Reunions
* All Articles . . .
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Today’s post is not about the goodies that I’ve received, but rather a service that allows me to provide goodies to others in the form of business investments.
Over the past 10 years or so, international charities and development organizations have developed an appreciation for micro loans in the developing world. In depth articles in publications such as the Wall Street Journal and stories on National Public Radio have educated me on the subject for years. Each time I’m reminded of this type of direct investment, I think it sounds like a good business to be in, both for profit and for humanitarian reasons.
The basic concept is that you can empower a community by providing small loans to entrepreneurs who do not have traditional access to credit. The concept of micro loans and micro finance is most commonly associated with the developing world. There investments viewed as extremely small in the developed world can positively affect a large number of people. The loans traditionally are very small, a few hundred dollars to a few thousand dollars. Yet an entire community can benefit and improve as the entrepreneur becomes self-sufficent.
This type of loan is most often provided by charities or development organizations and a small number of local commercial lending organizations. Because of this, someone such as myself could not directly support such programs. Even though I’ve felt that this is a business I would like to help with, short of getting a job with a group providing such services, I could not be involved.
That changed last year as I became aware of an organization – Kiva – that facilitated direct investment of this type. Kiva was founded to let you connect with and loan money to unique small businesses in the developing world. When I initially signed up to become a member there were not businesses in need. But there were lots of businesses that had already raised their needed funds.
Kiva doesn’t provide the standard information that a loan broker would require to fund a loan, but rather a profile of the business, a photo, and a blog like area where you can track the status of the business once funds are raised.
The loans that you make via Kiva are more like a charitable gift, expect you get your money back with no interest once the business owner pays back the loan. Any interest paid by the business goes to Kiva to fund their operations. To make a loan you need to find via the website a business in need, then you fund your loan via Paypal.
Once a business pays off your loan, you get the money back in the form of a Kiva credit. This credit can be sent back to you Paypal account, donated to Kiva (US tax deductibility pending) or re-loaned to another business. If a business defaults on your loan it is converted to a donation to Kiva (US tax deductibility pending).
This year my longtime desire to participate in micro lending was realized when Kiva posted many new business opportunities. I’ve since be able to loan small amounts to businesses in Gaza, Bulgaria, Senegal, and Honduras. It’s quite gratifying to be able to make small loans, which are bundled up into slightly larger loans, to help an entrepreneur in a place where a small amount of money makes a large difference.
So please, if you have any interest in help others, particularly small business owners or entrepreneurs in the developing world take a look at Kiva.org.
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