Dragons Den for the Developing World

darael said:
Because right now nobody in our home country is poor that could do with help, right?

Home first, abroad second.
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Personally, I believe that more good is done through giving abroad as the borrowers are more likely to value to the money and use it to give a significant rise in their quality of life. I don't think the same can be said if I gave $25 to someone here.
 
darael said:
Because right now nobody in our home country is poor that could do with help, right?

Home first, abroad second.
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Why don't you setup a similar service which is UK centric and gather all the poor people who want to start-up a business, get them on your website and compete with Kiva.
 
darael said:
Because right now nobody in our home country is poor that could do with help, right?

Home first, abroad second.
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Poor people in this country don't need my help. They need to get off their **** and go to college or get a job. People in this country aren't really poor either. There is already a massive amount of help available to people that are struggling. Other countries do not have this support.

EDIT: Also, starting a business in this country requires MUCH more than a few hundred dollars. Until a similar site exists then it's not an option.
 
Fair enough, I hold my hands up - the people abroad would make better use of our money.

But I'm suddenly wondering what's wrong with looking after our own first?
 
What a fantastic idea. Seeing the difference your money makes so precisely like this seems way more valuable then giving to a charity. You even get your money back! :D

I will probably try this a few times this year rather then giving to charities.
 
darael said:
Fair enough, I hold my hands up - the people abroad would make better use of our money.

But I'm suddenly wondering what's wrong with looking after our own first?
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Nothing wrong with it, most people can't afford to do it though. In a third world country it's a few hundred pound. Over here that's increased to a few thousand at least.
 
Nothing wrong with it at all. I think the main difference is the amount of impact it would make for these people away from home. If you gave 25 dollars/ pounds to someone in the UK, it wouldn't go very far.
 
I've been looking at various lend to aid schemes for about a year, tbh I think they are amazing and could be a powerful avenue of change in the underdeveloped world, like £100 loans could massively change a village's amenities and standard of living which could ripple out through the surrounding area and encourage real entrepreneurial wealth growth.

Sod it it's bottom off sofa time, tonight's the night for me and the kids to do sonething, thanks op!

Can I suggest someone up the top of the thread edit in that daerel (sp) has held his hands up so the thread doesn't get sidetracked over that post, ta.
 
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Rossi~ said:
How much money gets to there after admin fees etc?
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All of it.

I have used Kiva for a couple of years. Couple of things to bear in mind:

1) You get no monetary gain whatsoever. Everything you give goes to the loan recipient.

2) Kiva will keep asking you to donate to their running costs when you get your repayment.

3) You don't lend directly to the people. Those people have been pre-funded by the 'partner' organisations and you are essentially paying the partner back. The partner then charges the levels of interest rates that you would expect in an emerging market (think 20% and then some) and they keep the interest payments to allow them to pay for their 'administrative costs'. [Always wondered just how profitable they are but never bothered to look into it].


Point 3 leaves a bit of a bad taste in my mouth but there doesn't seem to be anyway round it.

To whoever was moaning about sorting out problems at home - look at Zopa which allows you to make some interest on the loans that you give although you don't have the same ability to choose who you lend to.

I have $100 in there and just keep recycling it round (though closer to $90 after a partial default).
 
So you don't really choose who receives your money as the majority of borrowers get the cash before their details appear on the site. Feels like funding a small microfinance bank.
 
batsy said:
So you don't really choose who receives your money as the majority of borrowers get the cash before their details appear on the site. Feels like funding a small microfinance bank.
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I must admit, that does take a bit of the shine off the pitch.
 
batsy said:
So you don't really choose who receives your money as the majority of borrowers get the cash before their details appear on the site. Feels like funding a small microfinance bank.
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That's exactly what you're doing. But don't start thinking that's bad - your cash reduces the risk for that bank so that they can offer better rates to the people they lend to. It also means they can lend to more people, since they effectively have more reserves.

The borrowers' details are real, though.
 
Burnsy2023 said:
I must admit, that does take a bit of the shine off the pitch.
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There are a number of micro finance charities some with direct input, that's exactly the issue which has slowed me down, I wish a paper like the grauniad would make a list of the charities so I could choose the one that suits me, I'm old and my googlegfu is non accademic and weak.
 
Whilst Microfinance has it's detractors namely larger commercial organisations, there will never be a perfect solution until the removal profit from all the functions in the chain.

I would suggest this is the closest we will ever get to handing over the money directly to the precipitant
 
The Geezer said:
Whilst Microfinance has it's detractors namely larger commercial organisations, there will never be a perfect solution until the removal profit from all the functions in the chain.

I would suggest this is the closest we will ever get to handing over the money directly to the precipitant
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Zopa is a more direct model. The absence of personal banking in these developing areas is a hurdle but I don't see why it couldn't be more direct.
 
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