Charitable Gift Giving

For a limited time, Groupon is partnering with Kiva to offer Groupon-like discounts for microloans you give to entrepreneurs around the world. Specifically, for every $15 you donate, Groupon will add on another $10 to give you a total credit of $25, which you can donate to Kiva projects yourself or give to someone as a gift.

If you haven’t heard of Groupon, where have you been? 🙂 It’s the most popular local-deal site in the world. If you don’t have an account with them yet, you can sign up here (after you sign up, you’ll see links to the Kiva deal on the top and the lower right of the page).

If you haven’t heard of Kiva, it’s a great non-profit organization which helps you help people in poverty-striken areas around the world.

It’s not just a handout, though. Kiva takes money which you loan and works with microfinance institutions around the world, who in turn lend it to entrepreneurs in the poor areas who wish to start a business. Just a little money from you can help them change their lives and the lives of the people around them.

On Kiva’s site, you can read about the projects around the world that need funding. You can choose projects by gender, type of project, and whether it’s a group or an individual requesting funding. Each project has a very detailed description from the entrepreneur and statistics of what the entrepreneur does with the money.

The entrepreneurs are very carefully screened by Kiva and the microfinance institutions, so in the vast majority of cases (over 98%), the entrepreneur is able to pay the money back, and then it goes back to your account (which you can loan to another business, withdraw, or donate to Kiva). You don’t earn interest on the money, but the knowledge that your pocket change can change someone’s life is worth much more than that.

Your loans to entrepreneurs are not tax-deductible, although direct donations to Kiva are.

Here’s the link to the deal: http://www.groupon.com/deals/kiva-national-1