Off Topic: Christmas VC lending at my house.

Kiva's third world entrepreneures will be receiving some VC funding this Christmas from the new Micro VC Maddy Fund.

 
Kiva.org is a microloan sight that lends money to third world entrepreneures in help their businesses and grow markets and economies.  So...

I've decided to facilitate this process and hopefully my daughter and I will learn from and teach each other something along the way.

My daughter will be receiving a gift certificate for $100 that she can invest in entrepreneurs who need access to capital. My expectation is that these tiny loans will be repaid and that I'll provide Maddy with $100 next year to ad to her Micro VC Maddy Fund so that she'll be lending $200 next year. Then we'll sit down and have a talk about expectations and responsibilities. I think of this as a kind of 'Pass It On' project. (Maddy will be posting about on her blog at Pony Tail Club.)

During the week between Christmas and New Years  Madison will be responsible for using the Kiva site to find 4 receipients to loan $25 each to. (Kiva uses a technique that allows / encourages this.) She will have to report to me why she chose this individual over all the others.

One of the most important in my mind is that she understands the finality of this act. Loaning money to one person means that you're not loaning money to someone else. Maddys decisions will carry repercussions for individuals that she needs to consider and not take lightly.

My goals and thoughts in doing this are:

• I believe in Kiva mission and want to support them.
• I believe in my daughter and her sense of justice.
• I want my daughter to realize exacltly how privledged she is and respect those who are less fortunate.
• I want my daughter to feel the joy of successfully helping someone.
• I want my daughter to learn something of decision making and repercussions.

I'd encourage anyone who thinks this is a good idea to comment, do it themselves, or blog / link to Kiva.org.

Comments

[DermGal]

What an excellent way to let your daughter learn. Best of luck to Maddy and her new fund.