Change a Life! Make a Microloan

Ken's Blog

As I was channel-surfing the other day, a PBS television program stopped me in my tracks. The show was about Kiva.org, a super-inspiring organization.

Compared to the tired, cynical feeling I sometimes get when tracking the 99.9% nonsense-noise in the 150+ feeds that we now track (the 0.1% is valuable and ends up in SBI!)...

Compared to the self-absorbed "me-too's" that Venture Capitalists pour hundreds of millions into...

Compared to so many dishonest uses of the Web...

Kiva.org is using the Web to change the developing world... one entrepreneur at a time.

The program moved me to tears, so powerfully does it resonate with my belief in the power of the Web to do good... to see small business people succeed, to witness good people who would otherwise be stuck in a life of crushing stone for $1/day, and to see the social status of women rise dramatically (microloans place emphasis on women).

You can read about the PBS story at this URL...

http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/stories/uganda601/video_index.html

You can watch the actual show at...

http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/stories/uganda601/uganda-601.html

And here's an interview with Premal Shah, President of Kiva.org...

http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/stories/uganda601/interview_premel.html

The concept of microloans/microcredit is not new. Dr. Muhammad Yunus, a Bangladeshi banker and economist, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for this important concept developed in 1976. Here are two excellent summary articles...

From Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microcredit

From Kiva: http://www.kiva.org/about/microfinance/

While the concept is not new as I said earlier, using the Internet to directly connect small lenders (you and me) with small borrowers (who are "unbankable") is an exciting, spine-tingling approach.

Kiva.org really seems to have it all together, with an extremely high payback rate from folks such as...

http://www.kiva.org/app.php?page=businesses

And you don't need to be a billionaire to make a difference. You can invest as little as $25 and impact someone's life directly. The payback rate is extremely high, so you get to put that money to work over and over and over again.

The emotional return on that loan far exceeds interest on your loan and is far more than the few points of interest you'd make from your bank.

The beauty of kiva.org is that it lives off donations and is non-profit. There's no big bank that needs to make a profit moving hundreds of millions of dollars. "It's all in the network" -- no squandering, no dictators to skim the top 90% off the top.

Somewhere in Kiva's documentation, I read this simple statement that says it all... "These people generally know how to fish, they just need $500 for the boat."

Kiva is changing the lives of small business people. Make a microloan and become part of the solution, too!

All the best,