Even if you don't follow fundraising trends, you may have heard of Kiva. Oprah and Bill Clinton are both big fans, and it's received a lot of media coverage of late.

What is Kiva? Well, it's an exciting web service that allows individuals to make microloans (literally, small loans – as little as $25) to entrepreneurs in developing countries. Microfinance institutions screen individual entrepreneurs, and post profiles of qualified ones online. Individual lenders are then able to browse the profiles and select who they'd like to support – perhaps the young man who wants to fix up his family restaurant, or the woman who needs a new sewing machine for her home seamstressing business. The entrepreneurs pay back their loans to the microfinance institutions, who return it, via Kiva, to the lenders.

Comic Relief, based in the UK, recently explained how an integrated online registration and fundraising plan helped the event 'Sport Relief ' increase its income.

Check out the attached article. Martin Gill has great insight into the world of online fundraising.

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