This article was originally posted on Dave Richard’s blog in February 2006 and he has graciously given his permission for us to repost it here. Dave is a co-founder of Off The Map and a microfinance expert. Dave cares passionately about economic empowerment and you can learn more about innovative solutions for ending global poverty on his blog.
I discovered a new microfinance service called Kiva which is attempting to truly enable person-to-person loans between a loan provider in developed countries and a low-income borrower in developing country.
I am very interested in these kind of innovations because there are currently very few options for middle-class North Americans to invest (not donate) their money in helping very low-income microentrepreneurs start or expand their microbusinesses in order to grow their income and break cycles of generational poverty.
Kiva is using technology to keep the costs of this kind of personalized service to a minimum. Here’s how it works. You go to the Kiva web site and browse through a selection of pre-reviewed loan applications. You get to read an overview of the borrower (including photo), what business they want to invest money in, what size of loan they are requesting and how much they have raised so far. Once you’ve found someone you’d like to make a loan to, you can instantly (using Paypal) make a loan for a portion (minimum $25) or all of the remaining loan ask size. All of the money is managed by Kiva’s web service with human intervention so it is very cost efficient and scalable.
Read the rest of this entry »
07-16-2007 |
4 Comments »“Let your capital be simplicity and contentment.”
- Henry David Thoreau, 1817-1862
04-09-2007 |
1 Comment »