Kiva which means “unity” in Swahili, is a non-profit organization based in San Francisco that allows people to make loans to entrepreneurs in developing nations in quantities of US$25. Kiva will provide information on the entrepreneur’s name, details on the use of funds, the loan amount they need, the risk involved and the loan period.
The lender can then pay Kiva through Paypal and they will disburse the money accordingly. Regular progress reports will be sent to the lender telling him how the businesses are doing. Once the repayment is done, the loan sum will be returned to the lender’s Paypal account.
I personally feel that donating money to support businesses in these countries serve a cause just as important as giving them medical aid. Job creation from these businesses give people hope, reduce their dependency on charity and encourages education due to higher demand of skilled workers. Big names such as Oprah Winfrey and Bill Clinton have talked about Kiva in the media and expressed their support for the organization.
There is another way people can help the cause, which is to publicize the loan requests by placing a banner ad of these requests on their personal blogs or websites.
Filed under: Non-Profit, Technology | Tags: FreeRice, Freerice.com, Non-Profit, Poverty
FreeRice.com, a sister company of poverty.com, has come up with an ingenious way to feed the hungry. What they are offering now is that for every vocabulary question you answer correctly, they would donate 10 grains of rice to the United Nations World Food Program. In this way, not only can the user improve their vocabulary skills, they are also effectively helping the poor as well.
How do they get their funds to buy the rice? This is the brilliant part of it all. While you play the game, each question is presented on an individual screen where advertisements are being placed at the bottom. So while you are improving your vocabulary and helping in the fight against world hunger, you are being exposed to ads and these impressions are sold to companies.
So what are you waiting for, this is definitely a win-win. Even though 10 grains doesn’t seem much, its like stopping global warming, every bit counts. If all non-profits can be as creative in their solutions as FreeRice is, we may really have a shot at transferring money from the big corporates to the non-profits.
