Small Good News: Maria Shriver Says, Show Me The Money

If we have learned anything this year, it is the first rule of Ponziconomics: If an investment sounds too good to be true, it undoubtedly is.

Except for this one, which requires much less upfront cash and promises much more at the back end, as long as you define wealth in a less literal fashion than Bernie Madoff's victims did.

So take out your wallet, visit www.womensconference.org or www.kiva.org/team/maria on your computer, and help someone get to work.

California's First Lady, Maria Shriver is collaborating with the Kiva organization to take the global economic concept of micro-lending and shrink it to fit within our shores It's a very big smaller idea, when you think about it. Yes, there will always be a need for a micro-loan from St. Louis, say, to set up a goat farmer halfway around the globe. But how about the $25 loan from Seattle that helps out a local baker, or enables a woman to expand her small existing pet-supply business, if she can just get her hands on some seed money?

The project was launched just days ago under the umbrella of California's annual Women's Conference, a yes-we-can event if ever there were one, created years before taking care of business became the political mantra of a Presidential campaign. For one event-packed night and the following day each October, thousands of women and friends of women descend on the Long Beach, California Convention Center to promote women-centric programs and products. Oprah's been there, for heaven's sake: How much more information do you need to know that something important's going on?

But there's no need to wait for October to get involved: You can make a loan right this minute. "Until now, Kiva has been using microfinance to empower entrepreneurs in the developing world," explains Women's Conference executive director Erin Mulcahy Stein. "With our new program people can make loans as small as $25 that will have a huge impact on the lives of women and their families here at home."

As we're all understandably skittish about investing at the moment, the site presents a reassuring load of information about each loan candidate, including their business history, their specific goals for the loan they've requested, and the level of risk involved, given the amount they want and their repayment record.

Think of it: For the price of, say, five or six jumbo gourmet coffee drinks, for the price of cooking at home once or twice instead of buying take-out, you can own a sliver of a small business. You can own a slice of the recovery - and we're not talking damaged goods, like your equity in any of a number of automakers or banks, but a new little shoot of a business that is going to change a woman's life, the lives of her family members, and, over the long haul, her community.

If your sense of humor has survived the downturn intact, just imagine what we could do with some real working capital. I'd like to see the guy from AIG who's rumored to be getting a $10 million severance package have to divvy up that package into 400,000 $25 loans. Or what if the credit-card companies that are trying to jack up interest rates and fees had to take that extra money and put it into micro-lending? What? You don't see that happening in our lifetime? Well, then: Those of us with fewer zeroes in assets but a functioning conscience will just have to be role models.

You can visit www.karenstabiner.com or contact Karen Stabiner at [e-mail].

Comments

[Pippen]

I'm fairly liberal and now approaching 50 fast and I have to agree on the topic generator always being set to "anyone but white men". I'd like to see some real numbers on how many minorities and women are actually in the business of business or just managing a website from home. The government numbers are not reliable.

I'm a well adjusted successful white male but after reading the net for a few hours it's possible I might start considering joining an angry male club before the uprising. And now apparently we men can't be trusted with even a Kiva loan . . . . but they want our support . . . .

I'd vote for Maria I don't care who her husband is or what he does for a living.

[jmpurser]

I do believe the last time someone was "inspired" by Ms Shriver California wound up with the Gropenator as governor.

[Anne Naylor - Huffpost Blogger]

This initiative is inspiring to me. Whether the investment goes to women or men seems less important. That enterprises are being given support in a manner that works makes sense. A large number of small healthy businesses makes I believe for a stronger economy than one more dependent on few large corporations.

This post a few weeks ago addressed the success of a European initiative in the 1970's.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/anne-naylor/how-to-successfully-creat_b_172053.html

I appreciate this post and the ideas it offers.

[Humanistic]

It's a wonderful idea, but starting a business in this economic climate?...that's pure lunacy. New business failure rates are high even in good times. Just try competing against the established businesses that are hurting and have good will and a track record in the community...AND against the big box or franchise stores that have a huge advantage. If you, as a business owner, try to provide something better for less, then you'll have to exploit your workers and work yourself to the bone. Can't everyone see that people are holding on to their money? (That is, those who have any!) And consumer credit is hanging by a thread. It's very likely that this proposal at this time, would even the score of women vs. men defaulting on business loans, and would sour investors to the whole plan, which has demonstrated merit under more favorable conditions.

[DamaskinosLives]

=

Maria should run for governor.
.

[Karen Stabiner - Huffpost Blogger]

I live in California, so I know the mess we're in -- but Maria Shriver didn't pick her wealthy parents, and she isn't the governor of the state, so maybe we could give her credit for what she's trying to do instead of taking her to task for things she's not in a position to control. As for women's loans, this is a project that stems from a women's conference, so there's a nice logic there. Nobody's stopping would-be investors from checking out Kiva's other options, or starting a co-ed program.

[Prakosh]

So what kind of marriage is she in that she has no control or influence on her husband who is in fact the governor of California.

[julia23]

How much influence do you have over your husband at his work?

[Gemma08]

Based on the fantastic concept started by that Mohamad dude in Bangladesh, who started the Grameen Bank and won a Nobel prize last year.

Does this mean that the US is now a 'developing' country?

[Steamboater]

It's a little ironic getting advice on economics etc from someone who inherited her weath and who's 'first lady' of California--a state gone bust. California is in the worst shape with medical benefits less and less e.g., dental benefits for those who need it come July are cut out, financial payment susidized by the state for those on SSI have been cut yet California just recently put some of the bailout money into a racetrack!

[Prakosh]

And what do we get but the old she has no power over that!

[Dynamohum]

Why just loans for women? While I think this program is really great, what about men? Do we not matter?

[Choicelady]

Globally and historically women default on those loans hundreds of times LESS than men. I asked the same question - women have better track records by far. Guys - you can fix that!

[W i l l]

I'm wondering the same. It's as if male well being doesn't exist and isn't even an afterthought here in HuffPo's Living section.

[julia23]

There are lots of kiva loans to men, including in the US. She's just focusing on women. But you can lend to men all you want.

I have over 700 Kiva loans.