A few days ago, a cozy restaurant in St. Louis called The Gelateria opened their doors to find that an electrical fire had reduced everything to ashes. They will need to rebuild the entire interior, including the kitchen.
They started a fundraiser to help cover their staff wages for the next few months while the restaurant rebuilds, and local restaurants have chipped in by contributing proceeds of specific products to the cause. We’ve supported The Gelateria in both of those ways, and it’s great to see the fundraiser doing so well.
I’ve contributed to over a dozen GoFundMe campaigns, mostly for emergencies like this. Unlike Kickstarter, GoFundMe is purely altruistic. I think it’s great that such a platform exists.
However, I’ve started to wonder what would happen if GoFundMe offered the option to either donate or loan the money instead. The donation option is great–give because it feels right to you. It’s a testament to the generosity of people. But why not also offer the option to accept 0% loans? There might be quite a few people who won’t just give outright but who might be willing to support a person or business if the idea is that they will be repaid after the person/business gets back on their feet.
What do you think? Are there certain types of GoFundMe fundraisers that you would support (or support at higher levels) if you were providing a 0% loan instead of a donation?
I’ve done this for years with kiva.org. It’s a website that allows micro donations to people in developing countries. I donate $25 along with hundreds of other people to form loans of $500-$5,000 to individuals. (I’m not sure what the max loan amount is) Usually, but not always, they pay me back after 1-2 years. I loaned out the same $25 eight times from 2010-2020, until COVID caused a loan to fail. I enjoy repeatedly loaning money to people around the world.
Kiva, yes! I’ve used Kiva before, though I can’t recall using it for a cause in the US. I think Kiva demonstrates that microloans can work.