There are two great ways that you can support peer to peer lending with a simple mouse click.
1) Vote for Kiva.org — the micro lending site for entrepreneurs in the developing world in the Crunchies which are a major web award. Vote at the 2008 crunchies website under the category of most likely to make the world a better place.
2) Vote for Uncrunch America at Change.org which is being sponsored by Lending Club. Uncrunch America is a newly formed NGO that has been submitted to help change America using the voting system on Change.org. It is based upon the idea that there is lots of money available but hoarded and lots of people in need of money. The top three ideas will be moved to a second round of voting for a runoff election. The the overall top 10 ideas for changing America will be presented to the new administration on Inauguration Day.
About Uncrunch America from Change.org:
Solving the credit crisis from the bottom up
The credit crunch currently crippling America’s economy is not due to a lack of available funds. It is caused by dysfunctioning credit markets and by the banks having adopted an overly conservative credit policy in the wake of the subprime meltdown. After very permissive lending practices for many years, the pendulum has now swung the other way.
But the money has not disappeared. The money is still there, with roughly $6 trillion currently sitting in deposits, CDs and savings accounts earning interest at 3% and not being lent out by the banks. This is enough money to get small businesses through the credit crisis, offer student loans to everyone who needs it and refinance half of all mortgages in America.
Our idea is simple: unlock these resources, enable the people who have the money to lend it directly to creditworthy people who need the money through a new (yet tested over the last couple of years) mechanism called social lending: people lending money to each other at fair interest rates. With this aim in mind, we have created Uncrunch America (www.uncrunch.org), to give us a chance to help each other out…
Read the rest of the pitch at Change.Org.
Great Causes. I love Kiva, and this Uncrunch American initiative is rad!
Thanks for the heads up. I’ve been keeping an eye on you on twitter to get the $50 gift certificate…
Just to clarify, it will be a $25 dollar certificate and I plan to post it within a few days. I am trying to give a few more people the chance to sign up to follow before posting. I am glad someone is interested.
Thank you for stopping by to comment.
Its a great concept, that deserves support. Next round of voting begins 5th Jan.
Thanks Colin for stopping by and commenting. I’ll be sure to check out and mention the second round of voting.
PLP:
Thanks for posting about Uncrunch America on Change.org. It actually made it to the second round, and voting starts today for the next 10 days. VOTE HERE:
https://www.change.org/ideas/view/solving_the_credit_crisis_from_the_bottom_up
According to Change.org’s site: “The top 10 ideas will be presented to the Obama administration just before inauguration day and form the basis of a nationwide advocacy campaign to turn each idea into actual policy. ”
We certainly find it a worthy cause.
Rob from Lending Club
Norm, I posted the link to the Kiva certificate on Twitter and I am not aware that anyone has used it, so you might look back through my posts there. If you find it was used, please let me know so that I can update the link. Thank you.