kiva

I've been a Kiva lender now for a couple of years and I love it. I started with a few modest investments (mostly as gifts for friends and family) which have ALL be 100% repaid. There has been some debate within the philanthropic and economic communities about the ethics of microlending in poor communities, but I have followed the reports about my investments carefully and have so far been quite satisfied.

The awesome thing is that once a loan is repaid, the money goes back into your Kiva account so that you may re-lend it to someone else! (You can also take the money back for yourself, but I think that's a little cheap, don't you?) You can even give money in your account as a gift to someone for them to start their own Kiva account. I think it's awesome and a fun way to make a difference in someone's life on the other side of the world.

Oh yeah, and Oprah chose this as one of her Favorite Things, too. So...there you go.