I was reading something a while back, maybe it was Kiplinger’s, maybe it was a website, I dunno, but I had these 2 links book marked in my drafts folder.  I thought it’s a couple neat ways to “invest,” so I thought I’d share.

The first is kiva.org, where you can support entrepeneur’s all over the world, generally in places where starting your own business would be a little harder without some extra help.  I’m a little skeptical, but it seems like a good idea.

The second is donorschoose.org, where you can find schools in lower income areas that need funds for a particular project.

Some pretty neat ideas in my opinion.

I recently read a post by Madame X, Net worth update. What caught my attention was the Charity portion of it and one of the comments:

At 3/31/2006 5:30 PM, Anonymous said…
Charitable giving at zero. Ouch. Do you volunteer your time, perhaps? 

Charitable giving is very much a person’s decision. If it doesn’t come from the heart, then it really isn’t charitable donation, it’s a payment…why not just call it a bill.

Another issue with charitable donations that I have is the “10%” number. I’m all for donating money to charities, but I constantly see articles documenting that people donate or should donate 10% of their salary to charities. It’s just not right to me. I know, I know people just want some idea of how much to donate, but really that’s just not right. Everyone donates based on what they feel is appropriate. 10% of someone who’s making $10 million versus someone who’s making $20k a year is a big difference…and is very relative.

I probably come off as an a$$h0le for saying something like that, but I’m honestly disturbed by comments about people’s decision to donate if they didn’t solicit it. Sorry, continue on…