<p><a href=”http://www.kiva.org/lend/342667″><img alt=”” class=”floatLeft” height=”185″ src=”http://www.kiva.org/img/w610h450/887183.jpg” width=”164″/></a></p>
<p>If you haven’t heard of Kiva before, <a href=”http://www.kiva.org/about”>go here and read about it</a>. I selected <a href=”http://www.kiva.org/lend/342667″>an auto mechanic from Kenya</a>, Harison Ochar Kimori, as my man. As you can read below in “Common Questions,” that means very little, but it somehow makes me sleep better knowing I didn’t just give money to a faceless organization [when in actuality I kind of did… I don’t know, it’s better, okay?].</p>
<p>Kiva has been around for quite a few years now and has seemingly done a fairly good job at what they do. There have been 1/4 of a million dollars in loans funded since 2005. I think they initially targeted female entrepreneurs only, but have since added males. Regardless, 80% of the loans are to female entrepreneurs in the developing world. That’s cool given how difficult it can be to be a woman in other nations…</p>
<p>I loaned a few hundred bucks and will be repaid in 15 payments starting in January. If all goes well, I’ll likely turn that money around and fund another loan. It’s a long time to wait, but what I did is fairly out of the ordinary; most folks give $25 here and there and have many loans outstanding at any one time. I wanted all my eggs in one basket to further enhance that connection I have to the loan.</p>
<p><strong>Common Questions</strong><br/>
Q: What is the return on your investment?<br/>
A: Nothing more than “it feels good” to enable somebody to support themselves and their family. In fact, the best potential outcome is a 0% return. However, 1% of all loans default. That’s not to say they default for the full amount, but they default at some point. Therefore, it’s safe to assume the return on my lending will be somewhere between 0 to -1%. If my lending follows the trend, over the course of my lending, I will lose my initial capital after 100 loans.</p>
<p>Q: Isn’t that stupid? To loan money just to lose it?<br/>
A: I donate all the time. This is a miniscule amount to be “donating,” and has the upside of me having a better idea of where my money [kind of] went.</p>
<p>Q: How do you know the money is going to the right person?<br/>
A: It isn’t, really. The person has already been given their loan via a microfinancing group in their country. I am enabling that microfinancing institution to grant a loan to someone else and/or stay afloat.</p>
<p>Q: Are there other sites like this?<br/>
A: Yes, <a href=”https://www.microplace.com/”>MicroPlace</a> is pretty much identical, and <a href=”https://www.lendingclub.com/”>Lending Club</a> allows you to finance domestic loans and actually make money off of them.</p>