Do Something Good Today: kiva.org

In January I made a promise to myself - no more gifts. I mean, we have a house full of stuff, we can barely fit already, and I'm really at a place in my life where I want less stuff. Less stuff means less waste, it means less cleaning, and more importantly, less junk. And for my friends, I'm going to try to follow the same rule and give you something you can use for the benefit of someone else.

This is what I sent to all of my friends on January 2:

Are you looking for an excuse to do good this year? Got some resolutions to give more? Well, rather than wait until the end of the year to send out a bunch of money, I've decided to start my year with a bang (and a plan) to lend money through Kiva.org. And I'm going to keep doing this all year long, and try to get more folks involved. Why? Because we have so much, and this is such a simple gesture.

Kiva.org is a non-profit that allows you to make a small 0% loan to low income entrepreneurs in the developing world (microfinance). We can help provide affordable working capital for the poor -- money to buy a sewing machine, livestock, etc. -- and empower them to earn their way out of poverty.

You know what's amazing about Kiva? It's how fast it's growing. At the end of last year I heard a speech by one of Kiva's founders about microfinance. I decided to take a look at their site to learn more. When you log in to Kiva, you can see the folks who have applied for loans - what they want to use the money for, where they are, their payment history - everything. They ask for so little, it's completely humbling to read. But the coolest thing is that after a few minutes, you can literally see the applicants loan requests filled and they move from the 'Need' column to the 'Active' column. I've sat for hours watching people come on to the list of applicants and roll off faster than I can loan them funds. It's thrilling and makes my skin tingle to think that there are enough people logging on and loaning money that sometimes you'll catch the system saying 'Congratulations, we've raised enough money to fill every application that's been submitted!' I've seen it once and nearly cried at what a beautiful thought that is.

Here are some stats from last week (New Year's week), for the skeptics:

• $794,525 loaned (over the holiday week, I saw this number at ~$950k - in a WEEK!)
• 786 businesses finished paying back loans (incidentally, the delinquency and default rates hover around 0. That's ZERO percent. Check it.)
• 1160 businesses were funded
• 11921 new lenders joined (NEW! NEW people loaning money, all at a minimum of $25 = ~$300000 last week alone from brand new people!)
• 3.5 hours to fully fund a business

Okay, this is enough from me. I'm done with my soapbox. Please, if you can and you're interested look at this. It's nifty cool, it's easy, and will make great presents this year (no waste, no junk, no 'giftrocity'). Good karma, you know?

Happy new year, everyone. Thanks for reading, and pass the word.

So far, I've made 6 loans and I've given 3 friends gift certificates on Kiva to get them started too. I've watched with excitement when my first loan was distributed and I proudly showed off my borrower's first payment back into the system. I can't tell you how amazing it makes me feel knowing that I can have this sort of impact.

There is a drawback, something quite unexpected I saw and felt in January - and I have to warn you about it because it's always a possibility. I had gone to the site to check on some stats when I saw a large number of journal recommendations for borrowers in Kenya. This was in the middle of the fighting there - chaos had descended on Nairobi and we were getting our first reports on kiva as to the impact. By the time I finished reading, I was exhausted and angry and crying. So many people who had asked for so little had everything taken - sometimes their houses were burned down, sometimes their businesses looted and burned, and on many, many occasions, the people were butchered, killed, or missing. The money had nothing to do with my anger. It was like I'd been present when we planted a tiny seedling, and now I saw that someone had come in and practically poisoned the earth so nothing would grow back. Everything these people had worked for was gone, and I felt as touched by it as I could a million miles away.

Check out my kiva page, and join in. Make a difference.