Oh, I was googling on "microfinance" and "microloan" and things like that, to see what was out there... I'm kind of an economics freak. :) Here's the very excited post from the day I discovered it, giving the link to some blog or other that mentioned it.
Kiva's totally not a scam, btw -- I only mentioned that to be snarky to a different LJ friend who once got all cynical about it. They have 503(c) status now, which means they can be externally audited, and they have blogs that always align with the rest of their website, and they've been featured in too many reputable publications to be fake. (Every now and then they get TV coverage or something and almost run out of businesses to feature, which is pretty funny. Those are the months I usually just chill out and lend double the next month.)
It's hard to explain why I get so excited. The same part of me that sort of recoils when asked for donations is very open to the idea of loaning to people who have real plans for the money. So sustainable! The visibility of knowing exactly who's got my money! Warm fuzzies. :)
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Kiva's totally not a scam, btw -- I only mentioned that to be snarky to a different LJ friend who once got all cynical about it. They have 503(c) status now, which means they can be externally audited, and they have blogs that always align with the rest of their website, and they've been featured in too many reputable publications to be fake. (Every now and then they get TV coverage or something and almost run out of businesses to feature, which is pretty funny. Those are the months I usually just chill out and lend double the next month.)
It's hard to explain why I get so excited. The same part of me that sort of recoils when asked for donations is very open to the idea of loaning to people who have real plans for the money. So sustainable! The visibility of knowing exactly who's got my money! Warm fuzzies. :)