Suggestions for a Group Project

For those of you who have read this blog, I am sure that it is not difficult to tell that I am passionate about microfinance. This passion stems from personal experiences, my desire help others, and my belief in capitalism as the most effective economic system. Ultimately, that is what microfinance is: the intersection of money and compassion.

One of the great things about microfinance is that it is an area with a ton of white space i.e. there are copious areas and opportunities to contribute and make a difference. I think it would be an awesome idea to utilize some of what we have learned in our digital civilizations class and apply it to the area of microfinance.  Here are a few of my ideas (please feel free to add to mine and/or suggest your own):

1) Create a microfinance wiki (as far as I can tell, a well done, comprehensive microfinance wiki does not exist)

2) Work towards creating an organization that uses social media to help connect donors and recipients (similar to Kiva.com) but perhaps with the focus of helping church members. This idea could be greatly expounded upon.

3) Create a club, group, or network of BYU students interested in Microfinance using social media to organize. There are many things that could be done with this group e.g. eventually start our own MFI pooling together our ideas, talents, and resources. Check out these students as an example.

I am excited about all of the possibilities, please let me know what you think!