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A few of my apartment-dwelling friends move about once a year -- which means they have a brand new address for each holiday season. Which means that even if I hadn't put off shopping for holiday gifts until the last minute, I still wouldn't know where to send them.
Which means embarrassingly calling up my friends on xmas eve -- or even on the day of! -- to ask, "um, so your gift'll get there -- super late. Also, where do you live now?" Even gift donations to nonprofits and charities often require snail mail addresses of the recipient, so non-material gifts too don't necessarily solve the problem.
But now I've found the solution: Kiva! I got the idea when a couple days ago, my more-on-top-of-the-holidays friend Erin sent me a Kiva gift certificate via email, which I've already gleefully spent. Then I in turn bought 2 Kiva gift certificates and sent them to a couple friends still on my need-to-get-a-gift-for list. Holiday conundrum magically solved!
What Kiva is: Basically, Kiva's like a portal between a would-be-lender with a little money, and a would-be-borrower with a small businesses in the developing world. With a mere $25, you can become an investor, giving NOT a simple handout, but a real business loan. Yes, that means that you'll likely get your money back (there's a "risk rating" for each business you can take into account) -- perhaps to invest in another business!
To become an investor, all I had to do was click over from the email Erin sent. I browsed through these businesses, filtering by region, business sector, gender of the business person, and more -- and even read the stories of what these people are trying to do with their businesses.
In the end I decided on Maribel Del Carmen Rodriguez's used clothing sales business. Not only is the business woman-owned, it's eco, because it's giving pre-loved clothes new homes!
Maribel's trying to raise $350 to buy merchandise. Or actually, she's already raised it! Crazy thing: Last night, Maribel had received just $100 -- but overnight, she apparently found 10 additional donors!
I guess Kiva's a very popular holiday gift -- although many people seem to have small confusions about how the thing works:
* SF Money Musings put $25 into a entreprenurial business in Peru, and wrote "How else are we supposed to help third world citizens make a living if all we do is open sweatshops and create unfair trade policies where we dump our goods on their countries for cheap prices in exchange for services?" Her post, however, makes Kiva loans sound like handouts, but really, they are loans! You'll likely get that $25 back, SFMM! :) Case in point: SeaRabbit of The 13th Floor says she'd totally forgotten about the Kiva loans she'd given "until I returned on the site this last Thursday… and to my surprise, she already paid back almost half of the amount she got. I found this very encouraging and decided to help 2 more women in Central America." Yay!
* Jessica Pfund of Vestal Designs blog writes that Kiva certificates "especially appealing when you consider how you were probably going to throw at least $30 at some stupid bobble head toy that your friend would have laughed at once and then thrown away." Her post, however, makes it sound like you have to print out physical gift certificates (albeit on your home printer) -- You don't! You can keep it all electronic :)
So become an eco-preneur -- or make your friends insta-small biz investors. All you need is your friend's email to make sure your gift gets there on time :) And hey -- Kiva's hooked up with Facebook, so you and your posse can instantly show off your collective green investments to all your Facebook buddies :P
BlogHer Contributing Editor Siel also blogs for the Los Angeles Times at Emerald City, and at greenLAgirl.com.
