I haven't sent any Christmas cards this year, aside from a couple to immediate family that is. Bah humbug!
I did the same last year and for several years before that. Instead, I would donate some money through charitable giving in lieu of the savings on cards and postage...just one way to give a little back if you like. But then I came across a concept of giving micro-loans to people through a not-for-profit organisation called Kiva.
Kiva help to get much-needed finance into the hands of people that could benefit from it, yet have limited access to financing in their home country. Lenders allocate funds in batches of $25 and club together with other lenders to offer borrowers who apply for small value loans to help improve their lives in some way. I have initially chosen to support individuals in housing-related projects, given that is where I specialise and also where I generate a significant part of my personal income. This an alternative to charitable giving and is part of the 'sharing economy' or 'peer-to-peer' lending if you like.
So, instead of many of you getting a cheap and tasteless Christmas card that may well be in the bin before Twelfth Night arrives, I decided to support projects in Indonesia, Cambodia, El Salvador, Mongolia & Ukraine. These projects are simple and yet could make a lot of difference to the recipients. In some cases buying a small plot of land or building materials to build a home like Yanira, who wants to buy sand and cement in El Salvador, or Chrep in Cambodia who needs bricks and cement. Or for others to provide for essential repairs, home improvements or energy efficiency, like Valeriya's bathroom reconstruction project in Ukraine and Tseren-Ochir's coal-burning reduction project in Mongolia for example.
Kiva has a near-99% repayment rate with affordable lending rates, unlike UK payday lenders...which means that borrowers get access to small amounts of money in an affordable and socially responsible way. In addition, lenders get to lend their money out and get a modest return for doing so...which in my case will be reinvested into more projects through the site. This is another form of leverage therefore...I can re-use the same $25 micro-loans many times over based on the high repayment rate. This means I get to support more people with the same seed fund, which is different to a one-off charitable giving donation.
I realise there is a place for charitable giving and aid and this is not meant as a replacement for that. However, rather than leave these people without, or worse - to the local loan sharks, I get to help them to help themselves and hopefully more to follow as the loans get repaid. It's in the 'teach a man to fish' school of giving and that is why I am using my Christmas card budget in this way this year. I have a wider goal of supporting social projects in a sustainable way and this micro-loan fund is a small part of that. In addition, I have a vision to support needy communities in 'trade not aid' alternatives to charitable giving. For example, to provide essential business skills to aspiring young entrepreneurs, who may just need some guidance and a small starting fund to get themselves out of poverty. Many people do not seek free handouts, they just want a helping hand and to do the rest themselves and that is what attracts me to this type of financial assistance.
Small pebbles these may be I am sure, however if all of us throw a small pebble into a river, then maybe one day we can together build a dam?
That is all for now...just putting it out there as a different kind of concept to consider at this 'time of giving'...how we can possibly make our 'charitable giving' go that little bit further.
Happy Christmas!