Thanks to your signups, your retweets, your Facebooking, and your general awesomeness, the “Atheists, Agnostics, Skeptics, Freethinkers, Secular Humanists and the Non-Religious” Kiva group has hit 25,000 members! This means that our group will get $10,000 in loan matching from a big-money donor to Kiva, allowing us to do twice the amount of loaning to a partner of our choice. The team captains will make the decision about where the loans will go, but I’ll keep you updated.
That’s not all, though. Since I put out the call a week ago, more than 200 people signed up through my referral link. Because each sign-up gets a $25 gift loan for themselves and another $25 gift loan for me, we have raised $10,000 of our own in gift loans! Because they expire relatively quickly if unused, I have been loaning them almost as quickly as they’ve come in, meaning that in the past week we’ve been able to help fund projects in housing, education, transport, and a wide variety of personal and professional projects in places where they can do a lot of good.
Thanks to everyone who signed up and helped promote this campaign. We needed about 270 people when this first came to my attention, and for 200 (probably more, since a few people who were already Kiva donors joined the team) of that total to come from here is a major achievement. Those of you who are members already can help by giving your input on how the money should be loaned on the message boards, or (if you are able to) by donating once a partner is chosen.
Congratulations everyone!
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Thanks for the opportunity. I’d been thinking about getting involved in Kiva for some time–you gave me the spur that I, and I suspect others, needed.
Victory!
*standing ovation* for Crommunist!!! (And what Randomfactor said.)
I have to say, this was a more useful thing I did this Easter season than anything I ever did to “celebrate” the holiday when I was a Christian.
I’ve joined, and so far I’ve managed to lend $125 of someone else’s money so far! I must put in some of my own next 🙂
*urgh, so far so far so far moar coffee
Woohoo!
I’m already a Kiva member but haven’t checked into how to “convert” to the athiests group, but I will. Good going!
*applause!*
I agree with Carlie. I completely forgot it was Easter this weekend until Mom called to ask if we wanted to come for dinner (I actually didn’t expect that call this year considering last Easter Dad and I had it out about religion). I’m just a tad gleeful that, just in time for a major religious holiday, we all did this. Crom, you rock! 🙂