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Can You Build Your Portfolio, help End Poverty and Provide Someone Else with a Livelihood all at the same time?!
By admin | October 15, 2008
What if you could invest in something that not only has a great guarantee, but also empowers others to start living a life of possibility, instead of a life of poverty?
You already know what I’m going to say to this, don’t you?
Of course you can!
In honor of Blog Action Day and Empowering Women in Business around the world, I’m bringing to you today a Great Resource to do all of the above: MicroPlace.com!
So, are you ‘worried about your investments over this coming year give the stock market drops?
No problem! To build your portfolio with a guarantee that’s probably better than the FDIC, help out an aspiring entrepreneur, lift them out of poverty, and get Karmic Brownie Points all at the same time by investing in MicroFinance!
(And, Oh yeah, and you get a return on your investment equivalent to that of CD’s, without worrying whether or not the government will bail out the bank where your CD is held!)
What is MicroFinance?
Basically, it is the idea of giving credit to the working poor to help lift them out of poverty.
(from MicroPlace.com) “In 1974, famine struck Bangladesh. At the time, Dr. Muhammad Yunus was a professor of economics at the University of Chittagong. Disillusioned by the elegant theories of economics that could not explain the thousands of poor people dying of starvation on the streets, he was determined to find a practical way to help the poor. During a visit to the nearby village of Jorba, he was astounded to find that a sum of $27 could radically change the lives of 42 people in the village. This was the sum of money they collectively needed to buy bamboo to make the stools they sold to make a living. He took $27 from his pocket and made 42 loans to the stool makers in this tiny village. They were able to pay him back with interest and take a step towards lifting themselves out of poverty.”
“This simple idea that the poor could use credit to lift themselves out of poverty, led Dr. Yunus to create The Grameen Rural Bank in 1983. Since its inception, it has made over $983 million in loans to over seven million borrowers. Its methodologies have become the cornerstone of the microfinance industry. In 2006, The Grameen Bank and Dr. Yunus were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. ”
At its core, microfinance is about human dignity. It is based on the old adage: “Give a man a fish, you have fed him for today. Teach a man to fish, and you have fed him for a lifetime.”
“Repayment of loans and interest from borrowers allows the microfinance institution to make subsequent loans to the working poor, multiplying the value of each dollar in breaking the cycle of poverty.”
Repayment rates of micrloans is about 97%, and there’s no goverment bailout necessary to make it work. Borrowers have proven to be exceptionally creditworthy and repayment rates have historically averaged 97 percent. That’s much higher than in the US, right?
It benefits the working poor around the world, and in our own neighborhood,
I asked a MicroPlace representative a few questions that I thought you might be interested in as well, such as:
* How much of the investment goes to borrower?
Answer: “The entire amount of your investment goes directly to the borrower.”
* Then, how are overhead expenses covered?
Answer: “Interest rate charged to issuer.”
* How is MicroPlace different from other microfinance organizations?
Answer: “It’s a one-to-many investment, so your loan has a bigger and wider impact. For example, you purchase a security in the women’s fund of your choosing. Then, the loan is made to the institution in that country, which is then disbursed to several borrowers.”
Translation: You help more people with the same amount of money, which is like getting compound interest on your Cosmic Karmic Brownie Points!
* What is the minimum investment?
Answer: “$100 is the minimum initial loan amount, and you can make investments as small as $50 for any subsequent investments.”
* Who Started MicroPlace.com?
Answer: “MicroPlace was started by a woman who is a Cool, Hip and Wise Entrepreneur like You by the name of Tracey Pettengill Turner, a seasoned business exec who’s started lot’s of charitable organizations!”
(Okay, that last answer has my wording, not theirs, but you get the point!).
* So, who do microloans from MicroPlace benefit anyways?
Answer: By investing in microfinance at MicroPlace.com, you can help people like:
Basanti Pradhan, from Rural India, with a Dairy Production (she bought her first dairy cow with her loan),
or
Irina Kontratovish with a loan to help keep her market stall going when her husband suddenly died
https://www.microplace.com/investments/borrower_detail/132
to folks right here in the United States, with amazing “couldn’t-get-started… found a microloan… and now is amazingly-successful” stories like Claudia Mirza.
(And yes, I DO think that we need to take care of our own here in the US, as well as reach out to those around the world… I’m so glad to see microfinancing here in the US!)
* ‘Anything else that’s innovative about Microplace that we should know?
Answer: Yeah, we have a holiday program where the minimum investment is only $20. You invest it in honor of somebody, who is then sent a microplace mails a piggy-bank . This piggy bank holds about $100 in change, so that they can save up enough to make their own investment. Look for this program on our website starting October 27.
I think this idea is especially neat for a couple of reasons:
1. Your children, family, friends, co-workers and even competition (yes, competition, ’cause we’re moving into an enlightened age, remember?!) can receive a meaningful gift for the holidays that they won’t soon forget.
(Look out kids! Momma’s not getting you as many socks, underwear or useless-toys-that-will-break-in-a-day-and-be-forgotten-in-a-week this year…!)
2. It’s a gift that keeps on giving, kind of like “Paying It Forward.”
3. It’s a great way for an Office, a Classroom or Civic Club to make help jump-start somebody’s new livelihood by breaking the investment into smaller, totally-doable amounts!
Imagine! YOU get to be responsible for helping a woman (or man, or family or co-op… you choose) start a business, instead of stagnating in poverty!
And, what if you don’t have $100 lying around?
Well, to start with, I encourage you to implement some of the 88 Ideas to End Poverty as recommended by BlogActionDay.org to find that $100 (there’s some really good ones in there!).
Next, team up with somebody else (or a few somebody elses) to come up with the $100.
Then, go to MicroPlace.com, pick the area of the world, length of investment, and who you want to help and invest today! If you have any questions, I found the folks at MicroPlace to be especially friendly!
Most Importantly, no matter who you are and what your situation is: Commit to doing something today to help end poverty… Even if you’re down and out… There are always folks who are worse-off-somewhere, and since that whole “Do unto others” thing seems to pretty much be how the world works, when you choose to “do unto others something nice,” those “cosmic brownie points” will come back to help lift you up too!
Please return here tomorrow and comment on how you, or somebody you know, did something to help end poverty! Thank you!
Topics: Empower, Women In Business, empowerment |
October 16th, 2008 at 7:23 pm
Thanks for letting me know about MicroPlace. I’ve been a big fan of Kiva, but have been sad that they don’t have a plan for the US.
I’ll add MicroPlace to my favorite causes.
October 18th, 2008 at 7:53 am
Jennifer,
Wow, thank you for your indepth report and offering the resource MicroPlace.com
Your post is a wake up call to so many.
I also made a blog post about Blog Action Day 2008 - POVERTY and then re-posted to include your post among a few others that I feel are significant.
Check it out at http://www.imovator.com/blog-action-day/repost-of-blog-action-day-2008-poverty/
I’m Lovin’ It!
John Cussons
“Mr Emotions”
October 20th, 2008 at 3:25 pm
I, too, am a fan of Kiva.org. As you pointed out, Lynn, MicroPlace also gives microloans here in the US, which is one of the reasons why I spotlighted it the other day. John “Mr. Emotions” Cussons has some other great ideas (through him and others on his site) of some steps we can take to help end poverty. The important thing is to DO SOMETHING!
Thank you for your comments!
-Jennifer