My sister in law sent me a link to an organisation called Kiva (thanks Kim) - and I have to say I'm very impressed. I think it's a phenomenon ... and its all about love and business. Although not in the way we are used to. Kiva is a website that allows people to make micro loans to individual borrowers in the developing world. Forbes says "Kiva mixes the entrepreneurial daring of Google with the do-gooder ethos of Bono."
Why a phenomenon? Well, they've been on Oprah for a start. Their corporate partners reads like a Who's Who of the internet (YouTube, PayPal, Google, Yahoo!, LinkedIn, Facebook, MySpace, Microsoft, etc etc). They've had $$579k lent this week. And they have a default rate at less than 2% (there are some lenders in the US sub-prime market who would be happy with a default rate 10 times that amount).
$579k lent from individuals in the first world to entreprenuers in the thrid world this week via a website. Blows my mind. Check them out ... www.kiva.org.
