Kiva.org - Xmas gift suggestion for ballas

[Cry Me A River]

I first posted in OOT about Kiva.org two and a half years ago:

http://archiveserver.twoplustwo.com/ubbt...rue#Post3755831

Since then, Kiva.org has really taken off, being featured on Oprah, The Today Show and in Clinton's book, "Giving".

Today I'm finally putting my money where my mouth is and I'm going to give my wife a couple hundred dollars in Kiva.org gift certificates for Christmas.

OOT often has "What should I buy my girlfriend?" threads, and Christmas is coming. So here's an idea for all you guys.

Kiva.org is a microlending site. They give loans to small businesses in the third world where a couple hundred dollars can be six months salary. When you join Kiva.org and put money into the site, you get to choose which businesses to fund. So you lend money to a farmer so he can buy a couple extra pigs and chickens. Or you lend money to a weaver to buy a better loom. Etc.

My wife spent yesterday afternoon rediscovering Kiva.org. She's an artist and some of her regular venues are farmers markets. So she's super-sympathetic since half these people are selling in local markets.

The loans aren't charity, the money gets repaid and at a rate that crushes traditional banking - Kiva.org has a 99.75% repayment rate. Nobody wants to be the one to screw it up for everyone else, and these are business people, not charity cases, so repayment is a matter of pride.

You don't get any interest on your loan, so you're foregoing whatever you would have made dumping the money in an ING account. So that is your "donation". At current ING type rates, that's around $5 per $100 loaned, per year. That's not a lot to pay to help turn someone's life around. And you get regular updates from your clients, easily worth it in "entertainment value".

Kiva.og has gift certificates. I was quickly and easily able to buy them with my credit card. They're printable (they don't actually mail anything) so anybody stuck last-minute, you're all set. Purchases are through Paypal. I haven't had an active Paypal account in years. You don't need a Paypal account and it was no problem for me to make the purchase without a Paypal account.

Obviously this is not for everyone. However, if your girl is at all "globally conscious" or "bleeding heart" this is a great gift! Or if you think a more "traditional" gift is important, as part of a larger gift - ie, Give her a $100 gift certificate to the spa to heal herself and a $100 gift certificate to Kiva.org to heal the planet.