A while back a friend introduced me to Kiva. What Kiva.org does is partner with micro-finance organizations worldwide to raise funds for entrepreneurs. You can hop onto Kiva and be part of a team of people that each lend a person $25. You then get repaid in installments and can then use the credit in your Kiva account to help someone else. I have made a dozen loans to Kiva, and currently have one borrower that is late in making a payment. The beauty is even if they totally default, I am only out $25.
One of the hurdles I experienced on Kiva was how to "focus" my loans. With hundreds of loan listings this is a challenge. One thing you can do is focus on an interest.......say cycling. Or join a team. Lending teams are structured either geographically or via some special interest. I currently am counting my loans towards the Bicycles for Humanity Team. There is another team called Carbon Trace that focuses on carbon free transport, there are religious teams, atheist teams, country teams, workplace teams- you get the picture.
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