Team number 301 -- Don and Jims Family and Friends -- is a cool lending team I think. This team was established so that supportive friends and family of Don and Jim could celebrate Don and Jims 25th year together, and now legal union, by making Kiva loans and attributing them to the lending team.
Don and Jim, retired and living in Mexico, are devout Kiva lenders. They lend because they have found the people in Mexico to be lovely, honest, and hard-working, and they want to support entrepreneurs in Mexico any way they can. Eight loans have already been made in under two weeks in celebration of Don and Jims union.
Others are using Kiva for events too. I have talked to a couple who, instead of giving out traditional wedding favors, is planning to make loans on behalf of their wedding guests; they are creating a lending team where guests can go and view the loans that were made. Another lender is setting up a team for his 50th birthday. He figures he already has everything he needs and would rather his guest make Kiva loans than buy him a gift.
Supporting your friends by supporting a borrower in the developing world -- pretty cool.
PS -- In other news, football season is underway and I am just waiting for more fan lending teams to get up and running, and for the friendly competitions to begin. Maybe those who would be interested have been too busy setting up their Fantasy Football teams. As a New England Patriots fan (I may live in San Francisco but I am from Boston!), I am starting to feel that I am going to have a better chance winning this season with the Patriots lending team.
