Boards
Microfinance, credit unions, that kind of thing
+o(
Anyone done anything like this, put your money somewhere where you get a warm glow instead of much/any interest?
How did it go?
Credit Union -> Don't know if I particularly care about local people over other people, apparently if you get a dividend then you have to sort out paying tax on it?
Kiva -> You lend money to Kiva who pass it on (interest free) to a microfinance institution somewhere in the world who then lend it (with quite a high rate of interest) to people who need the money. People seemed to get up-in-arms about this around 2009 (https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=kiva+scam). Kiva explain that it's due to the small amounts of the loan and the relatively flat transaction costs (http://www.kiva.org/about/microfinance#III-I).