Nice
I joined Kiva today. It's a US non-profit organization that partners with existing local microfinance institutions to provide loans to entrepreneurs around the world, though mostly in the so-called third world countries. N has been a member for six months, and now I wanted to try as well.
How it works is that these institutions give out loans and then use the funds from Kiva lenders to replenish the loan they've already made to the entrepreneur. As the loans are being paid back, Kiva uses these funds to credit the lenders with their loan repayments (with no interest to the microfinance institutions or to lenders, though the institutions do charge interest from their borrowers). Lenders can then re-lend their funds to another entrepreneur, donate their funds to Kiva (to cover operational expenses), or withdraw their funds via PayPal.
Seems like pretty cool system, and you can get started with only $25. There are issues, as with any charity, but I want to at least try this.
(Wikipedia tells me that 'kiva' means 'unity' in Swahili, but it's also the word 'nice' in Finnish, which I think is very appropriate.)
Originally posted at Dreamwidth. You can also comment there using OpenID.
How it works is that these institutions give out loans and then use the funds from Kiva lenders to replenish the loan they've already made to the entrepreneur. As the loans are being paid back, Kiva uses these funds to credit the lenders with their loan repayments (with no interest to the microfinance institutions or to lenders, though the institutions do charge interest from their borrowers). Lenders can then re-lend their funds to another entrepreneur, donate their funds to Kiva (to cover operational expenses), or withdraw their funds via PayPal.
Seems like pretty cool system, and you can get started with only $25. There are issues, as with any charity, but I want to at least try this.
(Wikipedia tells me that 'kiva' means 'unity' in Swahili, but it's also the word 'nice' in Finnish, which I think is very appropriate.)
Originally posted at Dreamwidth. You can also comment there using OpenID.