Well, the "Big Idea" is on hold for now. I did move it forward a bit since my last post.
Back in February, I met with a couple of prominent lawyers in the field, and got somewhat of a handle on what I'd be up against from the legal side of my idea. The lawyers weren't cheap, and the legal fees to come (when I do move forward) will be pretty substantial.
Being committed to another major project at the start of this year, I decided now was not the right time to devote countless hours, and a large sum of money to the legal and software costs required.
My plan was to count the money I put into this project as my charitable donations for the year, and when I put the project on hold, I didn't replace the expenditure with donations to other groups. Well, in the last month, 3 things happened that combined to kick me in the butt and get me going again.
1. A friend asked for donations via Facebook for his Cystic Fibrosis walk after a friend of his passed away from the disease.
2. Another friend (who I know through my wife) was raising money for his charity (The Flip-Flop Foundation), and I donated $50. After I made the donation, I mentioned it to my wife, and she was kind of "embarassed". She felt that if we're going to make a donation to an organization, it should be more substantial, considering our income, and the overhead of not-for-profits.
3. A family member forwarded me an E-mail saying "We Did It!!" I looked below, and saw that what he forwarded me was from The Smile Train. I forgot that I mentioned The Smile Train to him a few months back. Appearantly, after I mentioned it to him, he made a donation. And, the E-mail he got from them showed him pictures of how his donation helped a child to get the surgery they needed.
I know I made the right decision to put the project on hold, and am not regretting it in any way. The side effect, however, is that I haven't made any donations in 2009, except for the small ones mentioned above.
I had been meaning to research Kiva for months, and today, when I had some spare time, I went over to Kiva.org, and checked it out.
This looks like an amazing opportunity to do some good. It's not "giving" in the sense of making a charitable donation, as the loans Kiva gives are intended to be repaid (and, according to statistics, over 98% of the loans ARE repaid). What you're really doing with Kiva is making an interest-free loan to an entrepreneur in a developing country.
I signed up, and made a few small loans, as well as a small donation to Kiva. I intentionally made my loans to people in 2 groups to accelerate my learning curve. I made 2 loans to entrepreneurs who had agreed to faster payback schedules (6 months), and my other 2 loans were to entrepreneurs who were close to reaching their target for funds raised, so I was able to move those people from fund-raising mode into repayment mode.
I'm looking forward to learning more about how the process works as a participant, and will update everybody as we go.
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