I follow Michael Arrington’s TechCrunch pretty closely – in the online space,  who doesn’t ?

Today I read a long write up Mike did on Kiva, the microloan site.  As of late, I have been putting my money where my mouth is, donating to the EFF, the ACLU and Freepress.

Through a Facebook group Indie Credit that is rallying people to collectively donate to Kiva, I opened one, then two Kiva ( Abiba Awel + Mrs. Savong Hang Village Bank Group ) loans, which I found somehow gratifying.  It wasn’t motivated by guilt, of ego, just that here was an opportunity to really help individuals realize their dreams,  in a different way that just giving money to a charity group.

Kiva Brings Microlending Home To U.S. Entrepreneurs In Need

 

The financial crisis has made a lasting impact on small businesses around the world and here at home in the United States. With the credit crunch creating a virtual standstill of lending, small businesses in the U.S. are facing an uphill battle to find funds, especially if their financial history isn’t stellar. Kiva.org, one of the web’s most interesting innovators in the micro-lending space, is hoping to come to the aid of U.S. entrepreneurs and small businesses by launching a pilot expansion that would allow individuals anywhere to make small loans to low-income U.S. entrepreneurs through Kiva’s platform.  ~

In April alone, Kiva members loaned $4.5 million to entrepreneurs, a 56 percent year-over-year increase and a record month for Kiva. Since the microfinance platform’s birth in 2005, over $75 million has been loaned through Kiva.org to support more than 180,000 individuals from 44 developing countries. Kiva’s president, Premal Shah, says this new initiative to include U.S. businesses increasingly made sense as the financial markets deteriorated and traditional lending began to dry up even in the U.S.

According to Kiva, small businesses represent more than 87 percent of all businesses in the United States, and, on average, these micro-enterprises are responsible for 900,000 new jobs created per year according to the Association for Enterprise Opportunity. This number seems small to me but the impact of small businesses on job creation is clear. To make matters worse, Kiva says more than 10 million business owners faced difficulty obtaining capital—even before the credit crisis and economic slowdown.

Kiva will launch today with the ability to for anyone to make loans to 45 small businesses and entrepreneurs seeking funding from the areas of New York, San Francisco, Boston, Atlanta and Miami. The businesses range in purpose and services, from salons to landscaping to day care facilities. For example, a Queens, NY-based entrepreneur delivers baked goods to bodegas in New York. He is looking to raise $6000 to fund insulation technology for his trucks.

So now Kiva is coming to the USA – Thanks Mike for the info – in this new political landscape – irony abounds !

Check out Global Agents for Change

On May 31st, more than 20 people will ride their bikes 3,000km from Vancouver to Tijuana, Mexico to raise money and awareness for entrepreneurs in developing countries.

Agents of Change, a nonprofit registered charity, hopes to raise $1 million from the challenge to connect those living in poverty with microcredit – small, interest-free loans. The loans are to help entrepreneurs in developing countries by helping to get them out of poverty.

The organization is raising awareness about how microcredit can help families escape poverty, with help from its partner organization, Kiva. Kiva, a nonprofit organization based in San Francisco, provides loans to entrepreneurs in developing countries. Agents of Change, which has so far raised more than $8,000 for microcredit, is trying to raise the million dollar fund so people in developing countries can be provided with loans through Kiva.

Kiva’s website provides a platform for borrowers to post their stories, pictures, business goals and needs. Supporters can view the profiles and get a choice of who they would like to support, as well as receive information on the borrowers’ progress and how the money is being used.

Through Kiva, lenders receive their money back after the loan is repaid, but that money can also be used again to help another entrepreneur. The million dollar fund through Agents of Change, however, isn’t refundable as it’s being set up to be used as a constant source of funding for Kiva.

Through Kiva, the businesses are screened by recognized local microfinance partners. All of the funds go directly to the borrower. So far, Kiva’s repayment rate is estimated to be 97 per cent successful.

Dr. Muhammad Yunus, who won the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize and is the inspiration behind the cause, founded the microcredit bank, Grameen Bank of Bangladesh.

This Mother’s Day is May 11th. Unitus has created a unique opportunity to celebrate the occasion while also helping the fight against global poverty.

Check out the Empowering Women website you tell the story of the inspiring and empowering women in your life. With each online tribute, you’ll also be spreading empowerment and economic opportunity to women throughout the developing world—proceeds from the campaign help Unitus microfinance partners reach more hardworking women with life-changing microfinance services.

World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD)

Mission Statement
Our mission is to provide business leadership as a catalyst for change toward sustainable development, and to support the business license to operate, innovate and grow in a world increasingly shaped by sustainable development issues.

The World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) is a CEO-led, global association of some 200 companies dealing exclusively with business and sustainable development.

The Council provides a platform for companies to explore sustainable development, share knowledge, experiences and best practices, and to advocate business positions on these issues in a variety of forums, working with governments, non-governmental and intergovernmental organizations.

Members are drawn from more than 35 countries and 20 major industrial sectors. The Council also benefits from a global network of about 55 national and regional business councils and regional partners.

As a parent, I am concerned that our children are growing up in an era of profound social, technological, political and economic change, with shifts in power and influence and growing international interdependence and between the “Have’s” and the “Have-not’s”. We adults, as teen role models, feel disempowered rather than engaged and involved as the issues appear to be of such a large scale that they seem insurmountable. Many of our teens want to make a difference but do not know how… They have little awareness of the power they that they really have to get involved and affect change

Perhaps an answer would be to develop a program engage young adults, to be better citizens of America, by becoming more aware citizens of the world. This initiative might leverage US teen access to modest cash resources and to harness the power of micro-credit to bring about change. I think that these young adults would feel enormously empowered as a result of the tangible difference they make through their participation in such a microcredit program.

]]> http://give4global.com/leverage-us-teen-access-to-money-for-microcredit/feed/ 0 http://give4global.com/whole-planet-foundation/ http://give4global.com/whole-planet-foundation/#comments Tue, 22 Apr 2008 22:59:21 +0000 admin http://give4global.com/?p=33

Whole Planet Foundation

Our Mission

The Whole Planet Foundation’s mission is to create economic partnerships with the poor in those developing-world communities that supply our stores with product. Through innovative assistance for entrepreneurship – including direct microcredit loans and tangible support for other community partnership projects – we seek to unleash the energy and creativity of every human being we work with in order to create wealth and prosperity in emerging economies.

Whole Planet Foundation’s Approach

Whole Planet Foundation, a private, nonprofit organization established by Whole Foods Market, provides grants to microfinance institutions in Latin America, Africa and Asia who in turn develop and offer microenterprise loan programs, training and other financial services to the self-employed poor.

Whole Planet Foundation is authorized to work in developing countries where Whole Foods Market sources products. Priority is given to projects that demonstrate financial leverage and potential financial sustainability over time. We look for strategic partnership opportunities in areas of relative political stability.

The Foundation does not accept unsolicited applications and proposals.

FINCA

• The mission of FINCA International
  is to provide financial services to the world’s lowest-income entrepreneurs so they can create jobs, build assets and improve their standard of living.

• The vision of FINCA International
  is to become the leading global microfinance institution by providing financial services to more than one million clients annually by 2010, while operating with the highest commercial principles of performance, transparency and sustainability.

• FINCA today reaches 700,000 clients in 21 countries.
  But the scope of global poverty compels us all to do more. At the beginning of the new century, the nations of the world agreed to work toward eight Millennium Development Goals that would eliminate extreme poverty and hunger by 2015.

Kiva

Loan to the Working Poor

Kiva’s mission is to connect people through lending for the sake of alleviating poverty.

Kiva is the world’s first person-to-person micro-lending website, empowering individuals to lend directly to unique entrepreneurs in the developing world.

The people you see on Kiva’s site are real individuals in need of funding – not marketing material. When you browse entrepreneurs’ profiles on the site, choose someone to lend to, and then make a loan, you are helping a real person make great strides towards economic independence and improve life for themselves, their family, and their community. Throughout the course of the loan (usually 6-12 months), you can receive email journal updates and track repayments. Then, when you get your loan money back, you can relend to someone else in need.

Kiva partners with existing expert microfinance institutions. In doing so, we gain access to outstanding entrepreneurs from impoverished communities world-wide. Our partners are experts in choosing qualified entrepreneurs. That said, they are usually short on funds. Through Kiva, our partners upload their entrepreneur profiles directly to the site so you can lend to them. When you do, not only do you get a unique experience connecting to a specific entreprenuer on the other side of the planet, but our microfinance partners can do more of what they do, more efficiently.