Launch of 30 Dollar Finance

Snehal Fulzele (a friend from the MSE program), I and some of our friends have started a non-profit organization called 30 Dollar Finance (30DF). 30DF allows individual donors (or investors) provide micro-credit to specific small time entrepreneurs in rural India. As the name suggests, the amount of money that one donates (or invests) is of the order of tens or hundreds of dollars. 30DF has collaborated with numerous Indian Micro-Finance Institutes (MFIs) that actually do the job of taking this money and making sure it reaches those who need it.

The motivation behind creating 30DF is the pathetic current state of affairs. For instance, scores of Indian farmers committing suicide due to inability to pay back loans is so common-place that it doesn't make news anymore. These loans are traditionally given out by landlords that demand unreasonably high interest rates and resort to inhuman extortion methods. MFIs on the other hand provide credit at lower interest rates. Even so, in reality these rates are still higher than what we would like them to be. So, the purpose of 30DF is to bring this rate down by providing additional sources of funding to the MFIs.

Using 30DF, people can donate money to specific entrepreneurs in rural India. In the ideal case, successful entrepreneurs are obliged to return this small capital along with an interest. This way the original donation could turn out profitable. However this may not always happen. In either case a donor does have the satisfaction that his money served an altruistic purpose.

30DF helps donators choose entrepreneurs by associating a credit rating with each one of them. This credit-rating has been generated using data provided by our local MFI partners. In cases where an initial credit rating is not available our system will assign one and then monitor it using a self-devised evolutionary process.

Other websites like 30DF have been largely successful in different parts of the world and it is our hope that we can bring the same kind of success to India. So, please visit 30DF and make a donation.

More information can be found at:
http://www.30df.org/Plebeian/app/faq.jsp

http://30dollarfinance.blogspot.com/