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People often recommend that if you’re going to be active charitably, you should act locally.  You’ll see the benefits in your community, and your hard work will be immediately visible to you.  If people care for their communities all over the world, then things will surely get better.  This is a wonderful sentiment, and often correct, but we live in a global community since the advent of mass media, inexpensive travel, and the Internet.  I believe that one thing proponents of local charity have failed to consider is the relative worth of charity vs. the effort consumed on the part of the giver.  Imagine if you could change an entire village’s life with a $20 loan!  With kiva.org, you can.
Kiva is riding the crest of the coming wave of person to person charity.  Most of us donate to charity, but feel left out of the process.  With Kiva, you are directly involved in helping individuals based on your personal decision.  When people need of small loans to further their business, get an education, or some other venture, they will fill out a profile on Kiva and explain what they’ll use your money for.  You can browse or search these entrepeneurs and choose any one you’d like, or as many as you can afford.  Once you’ve chosen a project, you will send Kiva the money, and they will forward it on to the recipient for you via their partners in various locations.  You can receive status updates, and here is the unbelievable part…they actually pay you back.
You can make a difference.  You can change the world and STILL be in a win/win situation.  This is hardly charity in the traditional sense; this is giving people the help they need to pull themselves up by the bootstraps.
Many of the people applying for loans are looking for some seed money to expand their businesses, so you’re supporting a person who is going to generate wealth in their community and improve the lives of everyone around them.  This is what people mean when they say “teach a man to fish, and they’ll eat for a lifetime” but amazingly, you don’t have to teach anyone anything, just get them a net and let them pay you back.  You get all the warm feeling of making the world a better place, connecting with people, and being partners in a capable person’s success, and you only need to let them use your money for a short period.  When they’ve paid you back, you can donate it to Kiva to cover their operating expenses, invest the money back into another entrepreneur, or take your funds back.
This really is the charity method of the future, as it cuts all the red tape and allows people to make a big difference with a small investment and remain in complete control of how their money will help the recipient.  Check Kiva out today!
