Bernard Madoff investors should have invested in Kiva.org or Microplace.com

A little less greed would actually have benefited Bernard Maddoff's customers. They could have made the world a better place and kept their principal secure if they'd invested with Pierre Omidyar or Sequoia Captial, or the 40-or-so other microloan investors.

Small time investors like me can invest in microfinance efforts such as Kiva.org or Microplac.com.

Investing in People
E Magazine
Making a Difference, One Small Loan at a Time

By Rona Fried

© Elizabeth Prager
The world learned about microfinance in 2006 when Muhammad Yunus, founder of Grameen Bank, won the Nobel Peace Prize. For several decades, the bank had been helping people in Bangladesh rise from poverty by giving them tiny loans, most under $200. Now the Bank has $520 million in outstanding loans to small businesses in poor countries.

Microfinance—offering loans, savings accounts and other basic financial services to the poor—has proved to be a critical lever in helping people to help themselves. A woman might borrow $50 to buy chickens so she can sell eggs at the local market. She can sell more eggs as her chickens multiply, and soon she can sell the chicks. She shares knowledge with her neighbors, creates jobs and raises the standard of living for the community.

Women receive the most loans because studies have shown they are more likely to reinvest their earnings in the businesses and in their families. They also tend to take fewer risks with their business and are more careful to repay loans. Whereas only 4% of the poorest people in Bangladesh pulled themselves above the poverty line without credit services, 48% did so with loans from Grameen Bank over an eight-year period...