273

One of the most captivating presentations I have ever seen

Here at 273 we are constantly trying to come up with creative, new and interesting ways to help fund entrepreneurs in the developing world through Kiva.  Today we are very excited to announce a new feature, The 273 Challenge! It’s a pretty simple concept but we think it will be a fun and exciting and all you people out there will think of some really creative ways to use this tool!  The basic rules for a 273 Challenge are outlined below:

1. Anyone can post a challenge
2. Challenges can be about anything (so long as its legal)
3. The Challenger will provide a reward of $25 (or more) in the form of a Kiva Gift Certificate to the winner.
4. The Challenge should have clear rules for participation
5. The Challenger must have a way of verifying the winner (can be at the discretion of the Challenger so long as this is made clear from the start).

The challenges can be as simple, complex or crazy as you like. For example you might want run a bike race in your town, charge $10 entry and offer the winner a prize of $100 Kiva Gift Voucher. You may need some market research done for your company, post the survey online and offer a $25 prize to a random survey participant. You might be suffering from writers block on your blog, offer a $50 Kiva Certificate as a prize for the guest post that gets the most page views. You might need some research carried out for a school project. You might need a local tour guide on holiday and offer a $50 Kiva Certificate to someone that will show you the sites for a day. You might want to ask for tenders for a project you need doing (e.g. logo design or website design). I’m sure all you 273sters will all come up with much more creative ideas! Thanks to Max Boronovski (maverick entrepreneur and wine expert) who got this all started by challenging us to find a creative way to use Kiva Gift Certificates.

Everyone that has been involved with 273 will know all about Kiva but for those of you who don’t:

Kiva lets you lend money to a specific entrepreneur in the developing world - empowering them to lift themselves out of poverty. Kiva Gift Certificates are a great way to spread the word about Kiva, they are also make a great challenge incentive because once the loan is paid back (usually within a year), the recipient of the voucher can choose to either withdraw the money and spend it on anything they like, make another loan or purchase another gift voucher and create their own challenge!

If you have read this far, I hope you are as excited about this idea as we are, and want to post your own challenge. The good news is, it is really easy to do just follow these steps:

1. If you haven’t already, check out the Kiva website so you can see what this is all about.
2. Think of a great challenge
3. Fill out the form on the 273 Challenge Page.
4. We will email you to confirm your challenge, clarify the rules and give you instructions about how to purchase the Kiva Gift Voucher.
5. Once we have confirmation that you have purchased the voucher, we will post your challenge on the 273 website, tweet about it (follow @273Challenge) and post it to Facebook (become a fan).   We will also email you a link so that you can start spreading the word about the challenge you have created, the more people that enter, the better the result!
6. Pat yourself on the back and congratulate yourself for coming up with a creative way to change the world!

Max Boronovski has generously donated the first $50 Kiva Gift Certificate for us to launch the inaugural 273 Challenge! So stay tuned this week for your chance to win!!

Yes. I believe there is.  More importantly, Geoff Davis of Unitus thinks there is.  Even more importantly than that, the numbers back it up.  Currently, only 20% of the people that could benefit from microfinance are being met with loans.  It is a rapidly growing industry with a $50 billion dollar a year industry.  3 billion people in the world live on less than $2 per day.  Microfinance is a business opportunity with the potential to make significant social change.  I highly recommend this lecture given at Stanford on microfinance (ecorner has loads of amazing lectures).  Think about the potential opportunities in this area.  Stay tuned to 273 because we will be implementing some new strategies to try and get more loans funded.

This is one of the most moving TED talks I have watched so far (and I have watched a lot!).  If you have a cause you want to promote, or a business you should be passionate about it, if not why would anyone else be?  I remember studying environmental justice when I was at the University of Alabama, it was a really interesting class, but I think this speech really shows the principles in action.  I hope you enjoy Majora Carter’s presentation ‘Greening the Ghetto’, I’ll leave you with my favourite advice from the talk:

‘It’s better to ask for foregiveness than permission’