In my work I have had the opportunity to see many of the issues women face in the developing world up close and personal.  I realize that many people that want to help women and girls have not had a face to face encounter with those they would like to help. 

Fortunately, nonprofits have recently evolved some great techniques to make donors feel engaged with the personal stories of those in need.  Along with the desire to feel that person-to-person connection, lenders are becoming savvier and clearly desire an explanation of precisely where their donations are going. 

A recent blog post by David Roodman states, ‘In short, the person-to-person donor-to-borrower connections created by Kiva are partly fictional.”  This information attracted widespread attention.  The “Donor Illusion” debate is outlined well in this article in the NY Times and this is another great source of additional information.

In my opinion the way in which the nonprofit world is evolving is a step in the right direction.  The desire to have a direct person-to-person contribution with no intermediary is in itself an illusion.  Tim Odgen of Philanthropy Action makes this point well.

Kiva gives you a list of photographs and profiles of individuals you can support with a micro credit loan.   Your loan goes to one of Kiva’s worldwide “Field Partners”, (microfinance institutions that service the community where the individual you have chosen lives).  The Field Partner approves and disburses a microloan to the entrepreneur you have chosen and gives them a repayment schedule.  When the loan gets repaid you can collect it or designate another entrepreneur to lend it to.

The Kiva model of lending is currently being used to help worthy students get educational loans in countries where student loans have heretofore been nonexistent. 

Another program for donors (not lenders) administered by CARE that takes off on this idea is Join My Village.  Instead of choosing an individual to contribute to you choose a village in Africa and General Mills matches your contribution dollar for dollar.   The donations to Join My Village support ‘Village Savings and Loan’ programs that enable small groups of women to form their own micro banks.  I visited many of these VSL groups when I was in Malawi last year and was very impressed. 

I created a multimedia piece about the program for CARE if you would like to learn more.

As time goes on I’m sure more programs like these will make giving more personal and transparent.  I would love to hear of your experiences with organizations like these, as well as, similar organization that you have been impressed by?