Free trial at Kiva

[MHiggi]

I recently stumbled across Kiva and, after being inspired by what I've seen, I feel like I have to share it with the good people of Fiso.

Kiva's mission is to connect people through lending in order to help alleviate poverty. They do this by facilitating microfinance loans to the working poor in dozens of countries across the world. Essentially it works by crowdfunding, so each borrower’s loan will be funded by a large number of lenders who loan in $25 increments. This link does a much better job of explaining it than I can: http://www.kiva.org/invitedby/mhiggi" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

There are many great and worthy charities and causes out there, but the concept of lending rather than donating makes this seem like a great opportunity to do some good. And with a repayment rate of nearly 99%, there is an excellent chance for your money to continue doing good over and over again (alternatively, you can withdraw the money you get back in loan repayments).

Some vital statistics:
Total amount lent: $641,276,650 ($2,154,250 this week)
Overall repayment rate: 98.80%

Check it out and let me know what you think.

[MHiggi]

Has anyone taken a look yet? Is there a better forum to post this in?

[el_pappje]

Not had a chance to have a look at this yet but it sounds very similar to what Oikocredit do.

[MHiggi]

I've never heard of Oikocredit before, but I've just had a quick look and I think there are definite similarities. My first thoughts are that Kiva seems more personal and accessible, but there's no investment aspect. I'll certainly look into Oikocredit more closely when I get the chance, thanks for posting.

[tommymooney]

Another option here - that appears to be directly person to person....

https://www.zidisha.org/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I'm really into this whole crowdfunding/peer to peer model.

This list is also useful for people wanting their charitable giving to make an impact:

http://www.givewell.org/charities/top-charities" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[MHiggi]

Kiva is currently offering a free trial, which means if you join now we can both make a $25 loan for free.

Follow this link for more details: http://www.kiva.org/invitedby/mhiggi