Kiva

I first learned about microlending from reading Thomas Friedman's "The Lexus & the Olive Tree" in college. He talked about women who obtained microloans to buy cell phones. They charged their customers to make calls. The women could support their families and make their standard of living just a bit better. Brilliant!

I know it's been around for a while, but Kiva fascinates me. The fact they can gather 78 lenders from around the world to loan a Ukrainian woman $2100 to fund her clothing shop is incredible. Do you know there are 745,000 individual lenders from 201 countries who have collectively loaned $150 million? Even more incredible: 98.84% of all loans are paid back. Trying getting those kind of stats in our banking industry!!

I don't think I've ever felt so good about donating $50 before.