Websurfing: microlending

[serenissima]

How I spent the past hour and change:

Checked the weather on Yahoo! Today is a beautiful day, with the temperature at about 75°F, and the sky blue and sunny with fluffy clouds.

The Yahoo! weather page had an ad, something about wearing purple and the founder of Kiva. I clicked it. The purple Yahoo! page had a video clip about the woman and her organization. It also had a bunch of other video clips about other people Yahoo! seems to think are interesting, but I wasn't so fascinated with the rest.

Kiva is a microlending organization. I like this idea, and I know there are other such organizations out there. I was curious how Kiva compares to similar programs. I searched Google for reviews on microlending. After a bit of looking, I found a comparison on Slate of various microlending and micro-donation organizations. But the search turned up other interesting pieces as well. Here's a BusinessWeek comparison between non-profit Kiva and for-profit Prosper. Here's another BusinessWeek article about extortion through microlending in Latin America.

And then, of course, being magazines, both Business Week and Slate had other pieces that caught my eye. Did you know that Ford is selling a new subcompact diesel car -- but not in the U.S.? And I read a brief overview of recent political developments in Canada.

Meanwhile, I notice that five alumni and/or employees from my alma mater have put together a "lending team" on Kiva. I like charitable giving. I consider how giving some money to Kiva, or Grameen Foundation, or some of the others mentioned in the Slate article, compares with donating to Heifer International, my current pet charity.

And so passed a leisurely hour and a half. I still have homework, dirty dishes in the sink, tonight's supper, and an evening meeting to worry about. Less urgent but still important, I owe emails, phone calls or snail mail notes to several people. Oh, and I'm supposed to buy more weedwhacking string for the weedwhacker, so S.O. can deal with our little patch of jungle. Grah.

Comments

[daisho.livejournal.com]

Heh. "Sub-compact". In Britain, Ford has another class of car smaller than the Fiesta, which a lot of families use as their main car quite happily. :)

My economist chum, adamsmithjr mentioned micro-lending to me a year or two ago. He approved of the idea and has, I believe, been supporting it with his own cash ever since. I shall probably investigate it myself when I have a little more cash to spare, but there are very specific projects for all of my earnings just now: 1. pay off debts incurred last year; 2. save for wedding.

There might just be a small window between those two reaching their conclusion and the third major expected use for my money: nappies. :)

[copperwolf.livejournal.com]

Don't forget car seats/portable carriers, a stroller, a sling or Snugli, a bouncer, a crib and bedding, a diaper bag, clothing, bottles, formula and/or potentially a breast pump....

I think that window may get smaller as it gets closer.