Nasty weather we’re having — again. That’s okay. The forecasts tell us this dump of sleety snow is just a passing fancy. Enough to keep us house-bound for the day, but then thank goodness, I had wound up all the gift-giving errands that would’ve taken me out of the house. The last out-going packages are gone, and the last incoming packages have come.

Which is always a relief, since there’s always that danger that someone that you decided to skip this year would send you something that arrived December 22 — too late for you to even wrap up an old wedding present you never opened and send it, let alone actually go out to a store and get something. It’s the big game of Christmas tag. The best you can do is resolve next year to buy them something sensational and time it to arrive one hour before the stores close.

But then, just in case there is anyone out there in this fix, there is an alternative, and it’s actually a (capital-g) Good thing to do. You still have time to get a gift certificate from Kiva, and if you did, you could e-mail the gift certificate or print it off, fold it and put it in an envelope under the tree, so you’d be set. And you’d also know that your last-minute gift-giving could actually change someone’s life somewhere in the world.

Back here, I wrote a little about Kiva and said I’d look into it and report back. For those who don’t feel like clicking on links, I’ll just remind you that Kiva is a non-profit that takes your donation of $25 and allows you to put it towards micro-finance anywhere in the world. Your $25 (or your friend’s or relative’s, if you give it as a gift) might go towards a total loan of $900 or $1200 that allows a man in Pakistan to buy a dairy or lets a woman in Mozambique start up a flower shop. The lendees have up to a year to pay back the loan, and 95% of them do. When they do, you can re-invest the money, or cash out.

So I’ve been trying it out for a couple months, just to see how it would go. The bottom line is that it works, and that’s enough for me to pass it on as a Dec. 22 tip.

Here’s more info for those who are interested:

.
Good things:

• Warm glow — Of course the biggest plus is that it’s just a nice thing to do with $25. There isn’t anything I can think of that makes such a big impact with the kind of expense that all of us can spare.
• No skimming — Most charities take some off the top for administrative costs. The only way Kiva gets any money is if you decide to give them a percentage when you invest, or if you donate to them separately. Kiva is still a fairly new and fairly small operation, so chances are you won’t be reading about any of the kind of scandals that have tarred the Red Cross and other big charity organizations.
• Well done! – The Web-site is very well-managed, and the entire process has been completely worked out. The home-page offers a dozen or so loans you can contribute to, along with a picture and a short description. You can click on a link for more info, or find more loans. If you want to contribute, you can pay by credit card or PayPal. Once all the money is gathered up, the loan is made, and you’re e-mailed progress about repayment. You can also log on anytime to check on things, look up stories or get news.

.
Bad things:

• Politics? – Overall, I’ve got much more positives to give Kiva than negatives. But I will mention that there is something that turns me off a little bit, and that is that they’ve made a big deal out of having Bill Clinton endorse them. Now, I know I might sound like a jerk for even mentioning that. But the problem isn’t that Clinton is such a bulwark of Leftiness, though of course he is. The problem is that by having a video of him on the home-page, Kiva has politicized the giving, which I think they could’ve avoided. I would’ve felt the same if they had a video from Jeb Bush or one of Mitt Romney’s sons on the site. And I would’ve had just as much trouble imagining that the connection was accidental, especially this close to an election year.
• Who’s watching? — The other negative is inherent in any big charitable organization, and that is the issue of checks, balances and controls. As I said, Kiva is new enough and small enough that things aren’t likely to have any embezzlement scandals yet. But there’s just something about all the money at stake that tends to mean that things will go awry unless there are people on the frontlines who answer to a higher power and can communicate honesty and self-restraint in the culture where they serve. A person can never know for certain that that’s the case, unless they’ve got agents they’re sending out to check on things. But personally, lacking the ability to fund a staff of investigators, I have to go with what I trust, which is the Orthodox Church.

So my next little foray into donating and reporting back will likely be with International Orthodox Christian Charities (IOCC), which you can find HERE. I won’t stop giving to Kiva, because they seem like they’re doing a lot of good in the world. But I want to supplement those donations with some explorations into IOCC.

But that’s a project for 2008. In the meantime, there’s last-minute Christmas giving. And for that, it’s hard to beat something that really will continue to give for months to come. And it gives to both the one who lends and the one who receives. Clever folks, these Kiva dudes and dudettes.