Calvert Giving Fund
Kansas City Star
December 2007
MicroPlace.com offers families a way to tackle global poverty
Tracey Pettengill Turner isn’t selling video games, toys or collectibles from her eBay-affiliated Web site.
Instead, she’s pushing a helping hand, a warm heart and investment opportunities for parents and children seeking to break through the materialism of the holiday season.
In October, Turner launched a Web site called MicroPlace.com that lets people provide microloans of $100 or more to would-be small-business owners in impoverished communities all over the world. Not only are MicroPlace customers fighting global poverty, they’re also earning a return on their money. That’s what makes the site an alternative to other social awareness and charitable giving programs.
If your children are looking for creative ways to give rather than receive for the holidays, there are a growing number of charitable organizations and programs from which to choose. Many of the philanthropic groups are focusing on youngsters, hoping to draw current donations and build a group of loyal givers for the future.
Although MicroPlace participants must be at least 18, parents, grandparents and friends certainly can invest in the program on behalf of a child. Turner hopes to expand the program next year to include investment gifting accounts aimed at youngsters.
People can invest in microfinance securities and direct their funds to any of about 25 small-business projects in Africa, Latin America, Southeast Asia and Eurasia. Examples range from a basket maker in Cambodia, a hardware store operator in Kenya and a hot-dog salesman in Nicaragua who also peddles bicycle parts, fruits and vegetables.
Interest on the microloans varies from 1 percent to 4 percent, Turner said, depending on the amount and specifics of the investment. Though not risk-free, Turner said, microloans have a history of low defaults. MicroPlace has partnered with the Calvert Social Investment Foundation and Oikocredit, who are responsible for making the interest and principal payments on the microfinance securities.
Interest in MicroPlace has been strong so far, she said, particularly among younger people in their 20s and 30s.
Besides MicroPlace, here are some other charitable gift-giving ideas that might captivate youngsters:
- Protect rainforests and coral reef. Choose a gift card from $10 on up at markmakers.org. Then, print out or e-mail it directly to the child who can go to the site and allocate the money to a cause of his or her choice. There are more than 50 choices, including Operation Smile, Doctors Without Borders and Trees for Life.
- Purchase school supplies. Go to donorschoose.org and supply pencils, reference books and field trips to public schools in need. Purchase a gift certificate for any amount and it will be sent to the recipient, who then selects the project.
- Adopt a bald eagle. Become “foster parents” to a bald eagle by contributing a $100 adoption fee. Contributions are used for aerial surveys, rescue and rehabilitation of sick or orphaned young, protecting nest trees and educational materials for schools. The Adopt-an-Eagle Nest-program is sponsored by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. Contributors, among other things, receive an adoption certificate, and a photograph of young eagles in a nest. For more information: www.dnr.wi.gov; 608-266-7012.
- Donate virtual coins. Kids who earn virtual cash in the Club Penguin online games ( www.clubpenguin.com) can give some of it to charity through a program that runs through Christmas Eve.
- Help ease famine. For $20, donors can purchase a Kids Food Kit from Mercy Corps, an international humanitarian aid organization.
The funds are used to purchase food for malnourished children and to train workers to prepare balanced meals. For information on this and more than 20 other Mercy Kits, go to www.mercycorps.org/ mercykits or call 503-796-6800.
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