The Gift of Giving

This is the time of year for giving.  I wanted to share a little about something I kind of forgot about until a recent email and blog post.  About a year ago, I received an email from my friend, Lee Kolbert, informing me that she had made a donation to Kiva in my name.  I had no idea what was going on so I went to the site for more information.  From the Kiva site:

Kiva’s mission is to connect people through lending for the sake of alleviating poverty.

Kiva is the world’s first person-to-person micro-lending website, empowering individuals to lend to unique entrepreneurs around the globe.

The people you see on Kiva’s site are real individuals. When you browse entrepreneurs’ profiles on Kiva, choose someone to lend to, and then make a loan, you are helping a real person make great strides towards economic independence and improve life for themselves, their family, and their community. Throughout the course of the loan (usually 6-12 months), you can receive email journal updates and track repayments. Then, when you get your loan money back, you can relend to someone else.

After figuring out what was involved, I jumped in and picked out who I wanted to lend the $25 Lee donated for me.  It’s been about a year and I’m happy to get updates occasionally about my loan and the people I benefitting from the donation.  My most recent email notified me that just over $9 has been repaid.  I can withdraw the money or lend it again.  When more gets repaid, I’ll lend it again.

This is a pretty impressive organization.  If you check out the site, you can see the good that is going on and how much money people have donated to help others in greater need.  Honestly, I haven’t donated any of my own money to this site which I should have, but thankfully, Lee did for me.  It’s a nice feeling when you do good for others.  You might want to think about getting involved in Kiva – I’m glad Lee thought of me a year ago.