Thursday, December 19, 2013

Joining Hands for a Better World: 12.19.13

On December 3, I set out on a pre-Christmas challenge — to post a tip a day we can collectively follow with the goal of making the world a better place. 

Today’s suggestion: Honor the Person Who Needs Nothing with a Gift that Keeps on Giving 

You all have people like this on your list. Perhaps they are trying to downsize. Or they only read books on their kindle now. They have a drawer full of new socks and every kitchen gadget imaginable. They no longer wear ties.

What to do?

It’s gotten late in the day, so I will do this post in two parts. Today’s idea is geared towards a person who is computer savvy.  

Consider making a gift to Kiva in his or her name.


Kiva is a non-profit organization with a mission to connect people through lending to alleviate poverty. Leveraging the internet and a worldwide network of microfinance institutions, Kiva lets individuals lend as little as $25 to help create opportunity around the world.

Here’s how it works: You make a gift to Kiva in the amount of $25 or more in honor of someone. Kiva notifies the individual about your gift. The person you honored with the gift searches through the Kiva database and selects a borrower, then makes a loan, gets repaid, and repeats! The choice of who should get the loan is theirs. There are currently over 5,000 loans from which to choose. Learn more here

Since Kiva was founded in 2005, there have been over 1,023,445 Kiva lenders and $507,063,975 in loans. The repayment rate is over 99% Kiva has been awarded Charity Navigator's highest rating.

That’s it for today. Come back tomorrow for an idea for the person who does not go online, for whatever the reason.“See” you then.

“All together now,” as the Beatles once sang. Let’s see how much good we can do over the next few weeks.

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