INTEL DUMP – Shop and Awe

herzigma — Wed, 01 Mar 2006 19:01:25 +0000

The INTEL DUMP blog suggests an economic method for winning the GWOT in Shop and Awe. The author mentions Worldstock, a wonderful service from Overstock.com. Another similar program worth checking out is NOVICA, associated with National Geographic.

Finally, there are programs like Kiva.org, which I have already blogged about, that allow you to directly support entrepreneurs with microloans.

Kiva – a higher form of charitable giving?

herzigma — Wed, 22 Feb 2006 17:14:45 +0000

This is a post about Kiva, a web-based, peer-to-peer microlending service. Maimonides, the famous 13th century Jewish scholar posited 8 degrees of tzedakah or righteous charity in the Talmud. Interestingly, the highest level is not charity in the traditional sense of an outright gift. Rather, a loan or business partnership that provides the indigent with the means to escape poverty was considered the greater form. In this regard, I consider the Kiva program of connecting microlenders in the United States with micro-borrowers in the developing world to be the highest form of Jewish charitable giving. The service has received attention from the World Bank and Public Radio International’s The World.

Kiva works by partnering with private development NGOs to identify and screen individuals who could utilize small amounts of money ($25 – $500 dollars) to start or substantially expand their own small businesses. Kiva then provides a framework to allow anyone with a PayPal account to select one of these entrepreneurs and give some or all of the funds requested. The entire donated amount is given to the requester (Kiva supports itself through separate donations) and each entrepreneur agrees to pay back the full loan amount, interest free, in six to twelve months. Though it hasn’t happened yet, a defaulted loan becomes a tax-deductible contribution.

Do you have an extra $25 you could lend to someone in need? Can you afford to right off your $1000 tax refund? Consider socking your hard earned money away in Kiva and letting it do some good.

(via Treehugger and The Kiva Chronicles)

Joshua Herzig-Marx » microcredit

INTEL DUMP – Shop and Awe

Kiva – a higher form of charitable giving?