I've just added another way for you to join your fellow Think: Social Innovation readers in participating in innovative approaches to solving (at least some of) the world's problems. If you're already a lender through Kiva.org, join the Think: Social Innovation lending team. If you are not, I strongly encourage you to take a look and get your feet wet–you can test the waters with as little as a $25 loan.

Kiva.org allows individuals to participate in the fascinating field of microfinance, in which loans are given to poor entrepreneurs who otherwise are kept in the cycle of poverty in large part because they don't have access to credit through the traditional financial system. Indeed, microfinance was lauded as an "important liberating force" by the Nobel Committee when it awarded the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize to Mohammad Yunus of Grameen Bank, who is widely viewed as the "godfather" of microcredit.

I myself have been participating in this movement as a lender through Kiva for just over three months now. If you are hesitant to put your money at risk, consider my approach when I began lending. The idea of lending my money directly to an individual I would never meet was certainly new to me at that time (heck, it's still pretty new to the entire world), so I started out with low-risk lending. I diversified my "portfolio" over several loans, lent to group borrowers, and lent only through field partner microfinance institutions with Kiva's best risk rating. Since that time, more than half of my original loan amount has been repaid and I have re-lent that portion of the money.

Still skeptical of your risk? Take a look at some of Kiva's stats. Since 2006, more than $77 million has been loaned through Kiva with only a 1.5% default rate. What's more, the default rate for loans made through Kiva field partners with the two best risk ratings (4 stars and 5 stars), the default rate is 0.0%. Although lenders do not earn monetary interest to compensate them for the risk they take in lending, I do earn a return on my loans. I call it social interest.

UPDATE: For a great article on how Kiva was conceived and launched, as well as some of its drawbacks, challenges, and desired next steps, read this Stanford Social Innovation Review article.