Several years ago my sister-in-law gave me a $25 gift card to use as a www.Kiva.org donation. I didn't know anything about the organization then, but am somewhat familiar with it now as I have loaned out the $25 several times. When the loan is repaid it sits in an account and can be loaned out again.
A friend, Gary Kashefska, has donated to Kiva with money he came by accidentally. This is his inspiring story....
In 2007 I was headed to Seattle. I got to the airport and found an earlier flight had been delayed so I headed to the Alaska Air counter to see if I could get on it. As I approached, there was a pile of cash sitting on the floor and not a soul around. I picked it up and asked everyone in line some distance away (all 4 of them), if they'd dropped anything. None of them had. I asked the counter person what to do with it. She said no one ever comes back for cash but if I wanted to file a report, I'd have to head over to Terminal 2 and miss my flight. She said just keep it.
I didn't know how much was even there, but since she got me on the earlier flight I stuffed it into my briefcase and headed through security. I didn't count it until I got to the hotel in Seattle. It was $105.
Just a few weeks earlier I heard Bill Clinton speak at the CTIA show in Orlando and he had mentioned Kiva, so I looked them up. When I returned home I found another $20 in some pants I was going to donate to Good Will so I combined that and invested $125.
Over the years to follow I've loaned that money out $25 per loan. When the loans are repaid, I re-lend it. As of today..... 79 times.
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