Posted on 11/26/2008 8:01:09 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
If the turbulent economy has you ready to stuff your mattress with your savings, here’s how to get a better return for your money — while helping to alleviate global poverty to boot. MicroPlace (microplace.com), an eBay-owned business, connects the working poor to would-be lenders, allowing you to invest as little as $20 to get a one to three percent return on your investment — a better rate than offered by many savings accounts.
MicroPlace uses your money to fund organizations that make loans to people working to lift themselves out of poverty. Like the popular micro-lending site Kiva.org, MicroPlace lets you select investments that matter to you, narrowing the focus by country, gender or other factors. But unlike Kiva, MicroPlace investors get a return on their money, thanks to its broker-dealer license with the SEC. Plus, repayment rates for microfinance borrowers are high, averaging 97 percent historically.
And this holiday season, MicroPlace is offering Gifts for Change, a smart and socially conscious alternative to materialistic consumerism. Just make an investment in honor of someone you care about, and your honoree will get a hand-crafted Chilean artisan piggy bank — along with a note about the power of microfinance. In the New Year, your loved one can save up the change in the bank to make a new microloan, paying your gift forward.
I’ve been doing this through Kiva.org for a few years now. I agree with you—it’s a very conservative idea. I love it!
I’m sorry to sound dumb, but I don’t understand the checks and balances here. Who finds out who is poor?
As long as we’re not loaning money to people who have no means or intention of paying it back. I do believe that entrepreneurship is the answer to poverty. It has been throughout history. Its what builds nations. I’m just a little touchy about loaning money to those who can’t afford to borrow, given recent events.
I don’t know. I went to the kiva.org site and looked through several pages of “entrepreneurs”. Saw listings for three guys from Tajikistan but the photos were of the same guy just in different poses.
The skeptic in me wants to know how, without physically traveling to Vietnam/Costa Rica/Bosnia, does one verify that the funds actually make it to the borrower, and that the borrower is genuine.
This all assumes that professional lenders i.e. banks are giving up profitable lending opportunities. I highly doubt that. Grammeen bank, which was all the rage, basically hasn’t been heard from in a while. They were getting by on donations and subsidies. In the free market, if you offer $50 loans to people, you can either A: verify who you are loaning to, which costs more than $50, or B: Not verify who you are loaning to. When you don’t verify who you are loaning to, all sorts of problems occur.
Please tell us all more about your experience, I’ve just recently found the kiva.org site myself before reading this article.
Unfortunately, I just got done doing 135 micro loans. Only about 50 are current, most went bust, even after I was as ruthless as possible.
Microcredit
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microcredit
A true socialist would be aghast at such a program. They would promote the sharing of poverty.
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