Last year MySpace Founder Chris DeWolfe gave away Kiva.org gift certificates to his employees as a Christmas presents. I noticed Tim Ferris gave away a gift certificate via Twitter. I decided to do the same but with Kiva.org the micro lending site gift certificates.
I am giving away one certificate via my blog with this posting, one via facebook, and one via twitter. I’ll be giving away another certificate via twitter in the next few days so follow me on twitter. I added a $20 donation to Kiva on top of the gift certificates to cover the operations for the loans, so don’t feel obligated to add the service fees that they might ask you to donate when using this certificate for the loan.
From the Kiva website:
Kiva (www.kiva.org) [is] a non-profit that allows you to lend as little as $25 to a specific low-income entrepreneur in the developing world.
You choose who to lend to – whether a baker in Afghanistan, a goat herder in Uganda, a farmer in Peru, a restaurateur in Cambodia, or a … Read Moretailor in Iraq – and as they repay their loan, you get your money back. It’s a powerful and sustainable way to empower someone right now to lift themselves out of poverty.
Below is the certificate. All I ask is that you please post a comment linking to the loan that you used it on.
By the way, you will also need the email address <
Merry Christmas!
This email confirms that you have purchased a $25.00 Kiva gift certificate. This gift certificate will become
a donation to Kiva if it is not redeemed by Dec 24, 2009. We’ll send you several reminders so that you won’t forget.When you want to send the gift certificate to your friend, the recipient will need the following information:
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Amount: $25.00
Gift Code: 7667482456866
I still think that Kiva.org should allow you to make a donation with the expectation of never recieving any money back by creating microfoundations for micro loans.
Again, if you use this certificate please let everyone know by posting in the comments. Thanks!
Thanks for posting this gift certificate. I’ve been a Kiva member since June and just haven’t gotten around to making loans. My goal has been to fund at least one entrepreneur per month. This will help get me started.
I’ll add another comment and let you know which borrower I have selected. I hope to find an entrepreneur from Afghanistan. I spent several months there and was amazed at the abject poverty.
Due to the amazing popularity of Kiva EVERY borrower on the site is funded right now. Here are the stats from this WEEK:
* $1,005,000.00 lent.
* 12,817 lenders made a loan.
* 17,329 gift certificates purchased.
* 15,002 new lenders joined.
* 2,874 entrepreneurs funded.
* 1 loan was made every 25 seconds.
Wow!
I posted the link to the certificate on Twitter a few days ago but I never heard if anyone used it.
Hi,
I just redeemed your gift certificate, and immediately used it to fund a loan to the Grace group in Uganda, led by Dezilantah Pamba, for the purchase of sewing materials for their tailoring business. Thank you for helping spread the word!
Thanks for letting me know that you redeemed the certificate. I have a post scheduled for tomorrow morning that lists where all the Kiva certificates went.
I would like to no if your cedit would get hit right when the money comes or when it time for payment