Ryan MacMillan

This may not be the most innovative shift in online charity but seems worth noting if not just by virtue of the fact that eBay are behind it. Last week they launched MicroPlace an online charity site that allows you to invest in some of the world’s poorest to help them help themselves. Over time the idea is that they repay the loan as they get back on their feet.

This is not the first of its kind (cf. Kiva.org to name but one that I can think of off the top of my head). What’ll be interesting is whether eBay with all of their knowledge, expertise and of course money can make this more successful than those that have gone before. If nothing else I assume eBay’s name will generate a wider awareness of microfinance. This is no bad thing. Online communities helping offline communities provides (for want of a better term) a real connectedness between problem and solution something that will hopefully get exploited more and more.