If your institution provides small business loans, have you heard of Kiva yet? If not, it's worth a look at kiva.org.
This non-profit organization, founded in 2005 to help entrepreneurs over seas, launched today to help lend money to needy US small businesses. To date, Kiva has half a million lenders from more than 185 countries who have lent more than $75 billion with a 98.35% rate of repayment - according to the company.
Any average Joe can lend the small business of their choosing as little as $25.
It's truly "people helping people" - sound familiar credit unions?
Sure, these are loans that the Wachovias, Wells Fargos and Bank of Americas won't touch. But to community banks and credit unions who rely on local mom-and-pops, we should keep an eye on this.
Take care,
Eric
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