Kiva - Empowering Individuals and Groups to be International Financiers

In high school (early 1990s for me), I remember rich and famous people like Bill Gates and Ophrah visiting poor people around the world.  They made donations, gave speeches, started foundations and were hailed as making a difference.  However, there seemed to be a large gulf between “them” (rich, famous people) and “us” (regular people like me).

I thought, maybe in 20 or 30 years, I will be relatively wealthy and successful and make a difference in the future.  It was a vague dream like writing a novel or climbing Mt. Everest — yes it really could happen, but it is extremely unlikely.

Then something amazing happened.  The internet exploded and transformational organizations like Kiva.org enabled regular people like me to become international financiers and helping needy micro-entrepreneurs all over the world.  In my first batches of Kiva loans, I made loans to entrepreneurs in 5 different continents (no Australia yet; Antarctica may be tough :).  The businesses have included farming, a beauty parlor, grocery store, and construction.  Unsurprisingly, 100% of my loans were paid back.  Though these are small businesses and not revolutionary, they serve real community needs and provide a better quality of life for the family - better nutrition, housing as well as education for the children.  Grameen Foundation has conducted some research to capture these quality of life improvements with its “Progress Out of Poverty” metrics.

By using an innovative internet model and strategic partnering with effectively run local MFIs, Kiva.org has empowered ordinary individuals like you and me (and now ordinary communities - schools, businesses and even blog communities to become powerful internationial philanthropists who are giving impoverished people a hand out and not a hand out.

If you love Kiva.org, I encourage you to spread the word and to be “happy microfinancing” as the blogger Gavin put it.

Finally, please check out my Facebook application Cool Duels where you can both help the environment AND earn real money to donate to Kiva.org or your favorite cause.

How to Find Microfinance Blogs

One obvious way to find other microfinance blogs is through Google. You can also do a blog specific search on Google.

One of my favorite’s is Grameen Foundation grameenfoundation.wordpress.com. They don’t have excessive posts, so it is always something intere3sting when they do.

Technorati is one of the best places to look at top ranked blogs: it shows blogs by category, keyword and gives you an idea of how many blogs link to another blog. Here is my Technorati Profile

So check out your friends’ blogs, and blogs from their email signature. You will find out more about your friends and hopefully discover a bgreat blog.

Do you have a great blog about microfinance? Then please add your comment to this post.

Pledge Your Tax Rebate

Alex Counts of Grameen Foundation has an interesting challenge: consider pledging all or part of your Tax Rebate.

Do you think your family is struggling? How about a family in Africa, Latin America or Asia, where they are struggling to make ends meet on just $1 or $2 a day. Higher fuel and food prices are hitting the American family hard. While for us, that may mean one less movie and downsizing to basic cable, for a family in poverty in the developing world it may be not enough food for all of the family.

So even if it is 10%, consider donating $30 or $60 to Grameen Foundation. You can use the donation badge in the upper left, or go directly to Grameen Foundation and click Donate Now.

If your budget is tight, considering making your online purchases (for things that you need anyway - buying birthday gifts for family members, etc.) to help me earn commissions, which I pledge to donate to Grameen Foundation.

Promote Microfinance on Facebook

Become a fan of Grameen Foundation, Kiva.org and other great microfinance non-profits on Facebook.

Social networking can be a great way to share your passion about microfinance with your friends.

To become a fan of Grameen Foundation, click here

There are less than 100 fans - there should be thousands. Please join today.
And keep the discussion going with the forums on the Grameen Foundation Facebook page.

Progress Out of Poverty

Grameen Foundation has done some breakthrough research to help understand how well microfinance does to actually lift people out of poverty. Determining how many people are in poverty is difficult because the cost of living [food, shelter, clothing, health care] varies by country and countries measure poverty differently. Grameen Foundation has studied several countries so far and will expand their statistics.

For more details, see the official Progress Out of Poverty website.

Welcome

I support microfinance! Small loans can make a big difference. Over one billion people live on less than $1 per day. Many of these people have skills and energy to work, but don’t have the capital to create their own small business. With a loan of $50-200, an individual can buy her supplies for a business and start earning extra money. To learn more, please visit websites at the Grameen Foundation, FINCA and Kiva. The Grameen Foundation uses use microfinance, technology and innovative solutions to fight global poverty. I organized an event for them in April 2007 and met founder and executive director, Alex Counts. Read about the "Big Laughs for Small Loans" event here.

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