kiva.org – loans that change lives
i’ve always been a little suspect of donating to giant nameless/faceless charities like red cross. maybe i’m just a cynic, but i always think someone got to be skimming off of those billions of dollars that everyone throws towards them whenever there’s a crisis.
enter kiva.org, a small startup i read about a while back. you make person-to-person small business loans (as little as $25) to people in countries where a $1000 loan could literally change their lives. *and* they pay you back – they have a 97% repayment rate. the entrepreneur gets 100% of the money you lend. their FAQ answers a lot of questions.
so, i was just about to go pick an entrepreneur to lend to, and the site is down. apparently this PBS Frontline episode that showcased them caused such a rush of traffic to their site that their servers crashed! i guess i’ll try again later…
** 11/5 update: Martha Francisca Morado de León is the recipient of my first loan. let’s see how it goes!