kiva.org

Kiva.org gives you the opportunity to loan money to entrepreneurs in developing countries in order to help them establish their businesses. Over the period of the loan (usually 6-12 months) you can also receive email journal updates from the business that you are sponsoring. The way I think this site triumphs over other more established charities is that it allows you to choose who you lend to. Often the inability to keep track of exactly what your money is being used for is what prevents people from giving money to charity. You can view profiles and people's businesses. You know directly who you are helping.

Apparently the people who are featured have been chosen specifically by Field Partners such as CREDIT (who among other things organise loans to vulnerable women), and ACTION NOW KENYA, to ensure that you are likely to have your money repayed. To date kiva.org has a 100% repayment rate to lenders, but there is no security so in theory you could 'lose' your money. You gain no interest from your loan but to my mind this is irrelevant because of the impression you will be making on someone's life. And if you do not get your money repayed then surely it is still worth it for giving someone a chance.

You can choose how much of the money the borrower needs that you loan (you can loan from only $25), and so their total money can be borrowed from a large number of lenders. If you have some spare money, and want to give to a worthy cause I think this might be the way forward. This is helping people to help themselves without crippling interest rates that would usually attach to perceived 'high risk' enterprise.

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