You’ve seen the heart-wrenching commercials on TV with people starving, children picking through garbage and other scenes of terrible poverty. You feel guilty when the phone number comes up on the screen to donate. I know I do. I end up asking myself questions like, “How much money actually makes it to the individual?” and “Do handouts simply encourage the poverty cycle instead of fixing it?” It’s these questions that keep me from picking up the phone to donate.
Enter the miracle of micro-lending …
In short, money is lent and paid back, not given away. The recipient of the micro-loan, faced with poverty, decides to better their situation by becoming an entrepreneur with a business plan (perhaps, buying chickens to sell the eggs, fixing up a car to start a taxi service or even buying inventory for a small corner store). Benefits? Many.
The loan recipient receives 100% of the funds and help themselves by creating a thriving small business. The poverty cycle is broken and the loan is repaid — enabling the lender to re-loan again in a perpetual fashion. Everyone wins.
So, where does Kiva.org fit in all this? They handle all the overhead when it comes to microcredit lending including locating those in need, creating profiles, mentoring, handling the loan application process, funding and repayment process, connecting lenders with entrepreneurs, etc). Their website makes it easy and fun for anyone to locate an entrepreneur in need, lend them money, track their progress, and re-lend again.
We at Infusionsoft started using Kiva.org earlier this year (big bang at InfusionCon ‘09) in conjunction with our desire to help entrepreneurs world-wide. So far, we’ve lent over $25,000 to more than 300 entrepreneurs! $11,000 has already been repaid and is being reinvested into new entrepreneurs.
If you want to get involved in micro-credit lending, be sure to join the Infusionsoft lending team. (It’s okay, you can donate as little or as much as you can and help us help the lives of hundreds of entrepreneurs globally.)
–Dave
[...] It gives me a chance to meet face-to-face with our customers and partners, hear their success stories and learn how we can improve. It also gives me an opportunity to raise awareness for micro-credit lending and help entrepreneurs worldwide. It’s something I’m a huge fan of (see one of my previous entries on micro-credit lending). [...]