MicroPlace has a heck of a lot of options out there for where to focus your dollars to enable a loan.  Fantastic, no?  But how do you choose between helping women in Ghana and helping women in Cambodia?  All these choices can be a little overwhelming, no?

Well, no need to make that decision any more (pfew – if you’re like me, that leaves only 39,273 decisions left for today).   MicroPlace has introduced a couple of investments which, are great if you are passionate about an issue that cannot be confined by mere geo-political boundaries.  We are adding more all the time, but we currently have four:

1. The Women’s Empowerment Investment spreads your dollars across women-oriented microfinance institutions in six countries (Mexico, Ghana, Kenya, India, Kazakhstan, and Cambodia). With this investment, you can help women globally, irrespective of borders. Like Bono said:  “Give a man a fish, he’ll eat for a day. Give a woman microcredit, she, her husband, her children and her extended family will eat for a lifetime.”


2. The Sub-Saharan Africa Investment targets three sub-Saharan African countries:  Kenya, Tanzania, and Ghana.  The United Nations Human Development Index, which ranks countries by health, income and literacy, gave the bottom 22 places to African countries.  Microfinance can’t solve all of Africa’s problems but people have high hopes for it to do good because self-employment dominates the labor force and people are more dispersed than in most other parts of the world. Both of these lend well to microfinance success.
3. The Rural Poverty Fund is an investment that focuses on individuals in rural areas in five countries (Azerbaijan, Georgia, Tajikistan, Cambodia, and Nicaragua).  Investing in rural areas is important as when people in rural areas can’t find jobs, they move to the cities. Sixty million people move to the cities in developing countries every year. When they arrive, they don’t have a job, housing, or most importantly, a social network. They live in slums without electricity, running water or sewage, and are at higher risk for disease.
4. And, in case you can’t make any decisions at all, The Global Community Investment Note invests in poverty alleviation in fifteen countries.  This one is great if you want to just alleviate poverty regardless of where it happens.

Fantastic, no?  It’s like the variety pack of breakfast cereals, but does good for the world.  And has a whole heck of a lot fewer calories.