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A Billion Bootstraps

AroundTheWorld

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MJ, not sure if this should be here or off-topic... move if necessary!

A Billion Bootstraps
Microcredit, Barefoot Banking, and The Business Solution for Ending Poverty
by Phil Smith and Eric Thurman

A Billion Bootstraps takes sound business principles and applies them to the world of charity.

This is a great book for people that cringe as they put money in the offering plate because they don't really think the money will be spent wisely or wonder if it is actually helping .... or worse... actually causing harm or perpetuating the problem they are hoping to help.

A Billion Bootstraps gives us a different take on charity.

If you look at programs that supply food to starving people in third world countries deeply, you realize that the act of giving free food is actually harming the local economy. The only logical way to end poverty in a given area is to empower the local people to create their own solutions - their own food. The only logical way to end the problem is to support local food production.

If you are giving away food - you are harming the local food producer. They can no longer compete. Who will buy the product when it can be had for free?

A Billion Bootstraps is about giving a small business loan to entrepreneur minded people. They will improve their own lives, the lives of their family, and the local economy..... and they money will be repaid. This allows your dollars to positively impact several lives over a sustained period of time - not just a one time meal for 10 people.
 
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yveskleinsky

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The company that I work for is currently building a house for a program like this. The founder of this program is a friggin genius! Basically he gets builders to build a home at cost, sell it for retail and donate the difference to this charity. The donated money then is disbursed as micro-loans in third world Countries. ...The repayment rate is over 90%! The money stays in the community and helps the area develop and gets people unstuck. Wonderful- A+ post.

I have a charity of my own I'm cooking up. Once it gets off the ground, I'll let you guys know about it!
 

LazyPenguin

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I agree with the fact that giving free food to charities is acting as a negative effect on the local economies. But also when you said people give small business loans to entrepreneur minded people, are you talking about the people of that country? Because I would think that they would know how to solve their own economies the best rather then somebody from out-of-country.
Also another problem with starting a charity type businesses is that helping economies in some countries is the fact that the gov't has control of over a majority of what happens, believe it or not.
My business teacher (Im in college if you wanted to know) related a story of how the Chinese gov't has enough control to not allow a certain type of business into the country, (It was a charity type of business to help the work environment) because they said it made certain parts of china "unequal"
 

andviv

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So this is the post where I wanted to post the link to http://kiva.org which is, basically, what they are doing.
 
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Yankees338

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I agree with the fact that giving free food to charities is acting as a negative effect on the local economies. But also when you said people give small business loans to entrepreneur minded people, are you talking about the people of that country? Because I would think that they would know how to solve their own economies the best rather then somebody from out-of-country.
Also another problem with starting a charity type businesses is that helping economies in some countries is the fact that the gov't has control of over a majority of what happens, believe it or not.
My business teacher (Im in college if you wanted to know) related a story of how the Chinese gov't has enough control to not allow a certain type of business into the country, (It was a charity type of business to help the work environment) because they said it made certain parts of china "unequal"[/quote]
I think that's more related to the fact that they're controlled by a communist/socialist economy and gov't.

I like both of these ideas a lot. They both sound like things I'd be interested in. Necessity is the mother of invention, whether that invention be a new toy or a new business. If people need money to put food on the table, they can use their creative ingeniuity to come up with something. It's like spoiling a child; when they've been given everything their whole life, when the time comes to make it on their own, they don't know how to do it. Very good concepts here (in the posts above me).
 

fast_track_chaz

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One can only think all the charity that went to Africa, did we actually help them better themselves or become to dependent on us and the corrupt govt stays in power.
 
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Russ H

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Back on track:

UPDATE:

Sharon (my sweetie) has been working w/kiva.org. She's sponsored a woman who is a baker and needed money for flour.

But here's my real reason for posting:

This year, we're giving $25 Kiva investments to our nieces (the ones who have graduated college) as their "Christmas presents". They get to choose whom they will invest the money with, and follow it.


Seems like an awesome holiday gift idea to me, so I wanted to pass it on :)

-Russ H.
 

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