Nothing to do with making money today, but this post falls under the category of doing something of value with the money you do make, employing a greater purpose to your online business activities, and maybe changing some lives in the process.
I’ve written briefly about Kiva.org before but I constantly feel the need to reiterate it’s awesomeness to whoever will listen. Truth is, it’s one of the most rewarding times of my month when I get a chance to go to the website and select some new entrepreneurs from the third world who I’ll sponsor to help grow their business. And the coolest part is that their businesses help others in the community, feeding them, clothing them, educating them, and so on.
And if that’s the most rewarding part of the month, the second most rewarding is to receive an email that looks like this:
The email tells me all of the entrepreneurs that have made repayments on their loan this month!
It means that they’ve both made use of the funds I loaned them AND that because of their repayments I have new funds which I can now loan to OTHER entrepreneurs! The more you loan the more you get repaid, and so the more you can loan the next time around, so the scale of your contribution is increasing with each subsequent loan.
Again the big difference is that instead of throwing money at people from the third world and having them always feel like the recipients of charity, you’re INVESTING in entrepreneurs who by growing their businesses can empower entire communities to overcome poverty.
I just can’t talk highly enough of Kiva.org and if you want to make a difference I strongly recommend you go and make your first donation today.
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This is fantastic, what you do here! Thanks for this blogpost. I think I’ve vaguely heart about Kiva before, but what I really like is that you don’t just donate money. These people will have to earn their money, which is much better for them. That will motivate them even more.
Alright, that’s it! I can’t take it anymore. The last time you made a post about Kiva I thought “That’s great! I’ll start doing that once I’m making enough money…”
Geez, how selfish can I be?!
This post pushed me “over the edge”, if you will, and I’m definitely going to start micro-lending. Thanks for the inspiration Andrew,
Kyle
Yessss mate, good for you!
You’ll get addicted to it, trust me!
Andrew
Hey Andrew, this is great stuff.
Like Kyle, been meaning….
Did it today–$25 to a middle-aged lady in Peru. An animal dealer no less!
We’re just sooo lucky
Cheers mate
Alex
Ohh, good on ya mate, that’s SO awesome!! I’m trying to look into starting a Firepow Kiva group – posting soon!
Andrew
Hi Andrew:
Great post – getting the word out about Kiva. I love the fact that you can loan as little as $25 and that makes it affordable for almost everyone!
Thanks
Sandra
This gives me another one of my funky little ideas…
If you talk to yer mate Colleen about her new “Link love inferno project” it’d be great to use that to “Pay it forward” and get page 1 ranking for kiva… it’d be great to have you do it live, and bring in other huge blog networks too.. and really rock it! The work they do deserves notice.
As Ghandi says “Be the change”
When I can afford to do it I’m contributing, but I think I’ll be setting up my own blog about it in the meantime…
Thanks for the reminder that money isn’t always the point.. especially since I’m still in the “yet to make a sale” category!
L+P
Michael.