Smug Git Feeling?

Categories: politics, religion, finance

Tags: Kiva, Charitable, Giving, Micro Finance

Date: 19 January 2009 19:29:44

Today I have decided that I'm going to change the way in which I'm going to help the poor people more. It will also comply with my conservative ideals of helping people to help themselves. So instead of giving my money to charities I've decided to loan money directly to the people who will make use of it.

So I have begun loaning via www.kiva.org as this allows me to decide which people I wish to loan to and know that it is making an immediate difference in thoer lives. It also means that as they improve their lot and repay the loan I make recycle my money to other's who need it.

This helps me feel better about what I give as it will mean that I'm not giving to a faceless charity that will use X amount of my giving on admin costs. I can also choose when I want to give Kiva money towards its admin costs and how much. It also means that I don't have to worry about the charity using it for advertising campaigns or political lobbying that I may not agree with.

I will still give to conventional charities but not as much as I used to do. Micro financing is a concept that I can agree with and support.