Kiva
I put a new banner on the right-side of the page (near the bottom). No, I’m not making any money off of it - it’s for Kiva, a non-profit focused on P2P micro-lending. It’s an awesome company that allows you to lend money to a specific entrepreneur in a developing nation. You can watch as your entrepreneur starts their business - at the end of the cycle (when the loan is eventually repaid) you have the option of withdrawing your money or using it to fund another small startup.
They claim a 96% repayment rate, which is awesome. I would love to see this same model used in a for-profit setting. I think that if people could make competitive returns on their money there would be more interest in funding these micro-startups.
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Thanks for writing about Kiva and raising the awareness of how your readers can get involved in a worthwhile cause that is not too costly, but yet can signficantly leverage larger impacts! Thank you also for putting the banner up on your site, thereby extending the shelf life of Kiva’s message as your readers return to your site.
Tim (volunteer wtih Kiva.org)
Comment by Tim — October 4, 2006 @ 11:32 pm
This is a super-intriguing model. Micro-finance is great. I especially like how Kiva builds the foundation for networking and system that identifies entreprenuers that really make a difference. I’d like to see more of their long-term development.
Comment by John Keller — October 11, 2006 @ 8:53 am