Givology.org

As Microfinance becomes an increasingly used avenue to help the poor and disenfranchised, more and more students are getting involved. As a microfinance club, I thought you might be interested in the work of Givology.

Launched in September 2008 by students at the University of Pennsylvania, Givology is an Internet online giving marketplace for education that leverages small dollar donations to support grassroots projects and student scholarships in the developing world. As a person-to-person community at the forefront of the Internet microphilanthropy revolution, Givology partners with NGOs and schools throughout the world and connects Internet donors to grassroots causes. Through open bogging, and frequent student updates, Givology democratizes philanthropy by introducing choice, transparency, and information sharing. The successes of Kiva, Global Giving, and Mission Fish have proven that the use of the Internet to pool millions of microdonations can have an impressive collective impact for social change. We apply this philosophy specifically to the education sector, which still depends on traditional "check book" models of sponsorship. Throughout all of our work, we strive to promote both facets of the giving model embodied in our motto: "Give to learn. Learn to give."

In just over a year of operations, Givology has raised approximately $50,000 to support more than 1,300 primary and secondary school students in 10 different countries. The organization has more than 6,000 online social media followers and more than 1,000 donors registered at www.givology.org. We continuously strive to develop more partnerships with reputable NGOs and schools abroad and to find more students who can use Givology's innovative giving model to finish their education and escape the cycle of poverty.

As a 100% volunteer-run organization, Givology was selected as one of the "Top 100 Student-Run Enterprises in the United States" by the Kairos Society for Entrepreneurship. Most recently, Givology was featured in Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl Wudunn's book, "Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide" as one of the four things readers can become involved with to immediately start supporting women across the world.

One of the ways Givology reaches out to students is through its letter campaign. The letter campaign asks for handwritten letters or emails from American students for the students that Givology sponsors. In turn, the Givology student writes back to American students. The idea is that when a student receives a letter, they are less likely to drop out of school because they know that people all around the world care about them. The goal is to ultimately develop relationships with foreign and U.S. students as well as increase non-profit transparency.

Givology has recently pushed for a large initiative to help students who have been impacted by the crisis in Haiti.

Check it out: www.givology.org