Microphilanthropy: how microfinance changed fundraising

I came across an advertisement for hopeequity.org last night in one of my goodie-two-shoes magazines and took some time this afternoon to see what it’s all about. Heifer Project has put together a web 2.0 philanthropy vehicle that borrows heavily from the kiva.org concept. In much the same way that Kiva allows you to make small loans and track them over time, hopeequity.org allows you to make small donations to an endowment whose earnings fund nonprofits that you specify. In this way, hopeequity.org replicates two of the three Kiva characteristics that have made Kiva so successful. Namely, it lowers the barrier to entry so that virtually anyone can give (with $25 loans or endowment contributions), and it provides you with ways of engaging the process with social networking and tracking tools on the site.

Unfortunately, hopeequity’s user interface fails to replicate Kiva’s most important attribute: the personalization of the transaction. When you make a loan through Kiva, you have the name, photo, and statement of the loan recipient. The experience is personal. On hopeequity.org, the experience still feels a bit generic. That said, it’s worth checking out, if for no other reason than the great site design.