Their About Us page on the web gives you a great idea of their business model and what underpins it. Check this out:  ”All aspects of our business – from the product to the business model – are an extension of who we are and how we live.  We design for ourselves, first. If we won’t wear it, why should you. The same goes for business: if we can’t stand behind the decisions we make, why should you. So, in that sense, we’re a little self-absorbed.

We’re a small team – less than twenty of us, for now. We spend a lot of time together, always talking, testing things out, sketching, pinning things up, asking, heckling, critiquing, revising. It usually gets too loud.

We work hard. We play hard.  We like to go outside. A lot of us ride bikes. We also ski, snowboard, climb, surf, run, make music, see music, take pictures, grow food, eat food, stay out late, have families, and have dogs who clack around and sleep at our feet.  Collectively, we go through a lot of prosecco, dark chocolate, and beer.

And we keep coming back to our Portland office, early in the mornings, until pretty late at night, because we’re stuck on an idea: to redesign fashion and to redefine business so that each become a powerful force for change. One small step towards unfucking the world. This might make us fanatics, but it can’t be helped. We love what we do.”

They are one of my favorite examples of companies that are shaking up traditional business practices by enmeshing values, sustainability and philanthropy into everything they do.  It is not an add on; it is totally part of their brand and combined with their great clothes what makes them really unique.

The Partners for Change section of their website is one of the best examples I’ve seen of how a company lets people know the causes and organizations they support.  ”We’re trying to prove a point: that the well being of economic and ecological systems, and the well being of both humans and other living things, are compatible. We’re also trying to acknowledge that we’re wired to cooperate. And what greater project do we have to cooperate on than making the world better for all of us?

To that end, we provide financial support to community partner organizations working to create lasting, positive solutions to some of our societies’ and planet’s most compelling environmental, social and humanitarian problems. We’re not just looking to have purely transactional relationships with a few good causes, but instead to create real and lasting partnerships that expand the reach of both parties. Operating in conjunction with our community partners we have the potential to innovate together, in service of changing the world for the better.”  So impressive  - their philosophy totally resonates for me!  I am a big fan!

Nau has 5 major partners (Ashoka, Breakthrough Institute, Ecotrust, Kiva, and Mercy Corps) and do a super job of having a page for each on their website which gives an overview of the problem that partner addresses, their program, progress by the nonprofit, and a link to that organizations’ web page.  It is very nicely done – check it out!

How can you upgrade your own community investment mission and values statement, your materials and website?

“As you may have seen in the news, a terrible earthquake struck Haiti yesterday afternoon. The earthquake, 7.0 in magnitude, struck about 10 miles outside Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince. The devastation has been enormous, with many buildings destroyed and thousands of people presumed dead. This is the worst earthquake to hit Haiti in 200 years.

Kiva currently supports borrowers in Haiti through our field partner, Esperanza International. Esperanza is based in the Dominican Republic, but has an office and provides loans in Haiti. About 1/3 of the loans Esperanza posts to Kiva are for borrowers in Haiti. In addition, a large percentage of the loans posted from the Dominican Republic are of Haitian migrants who still have family in Haiti. Esperanza has told us that as of now, Esperanza staff are safe though they have several employees with family in Port-au-Prince who have not been able to contact their families and are very concerned. Esperanza’s clients are located in the North, while the earthquake struck the capital in the south. Most of their clients live close to their offices in the north. However, many of them have businesses that require them to travel to and from Port-au-Prince to buy merchandise to sell in the main markets. Their businesses may have been affected and it is possible that some of them may have been in Port-au-Prince at the time and been injured.

It is impossible for Esperanza to give us any exact figures at this time as information is only slowly trickling out of Haiti. As Kiva learns more about the effect of the earthquake on Esperanza and their Kiva borrowers we will update lenders.”

Right now in the immediate aftermath of this disaster , support for basic services including water, food, health care, and shelter is essential.  After the initial response and clean-up phases which will likely take quite some time considering the current conditions in the country, support for rebuilding will be critical.  We must stay mindful that Haiti will need assistance for years to come – even after the focus of the international community has faded away and onto whatever disaster is next.  Kiva will play a really important role in helping entrepreneurs get back on their feet and begin to again find ways to support themselves and their families through commerce.  Please keep your eyes open and when loan requests have been processed for Haitians and there is enough structure to begin making loans again, remember your support of even a few dollars can make a HUGE difference in someone’s life.

You can go to Kiva’s website and lend to someone across the globe who needs a loan for their business – like raising goats, selling vegetables at market or making bricks.  Each loan has a picture of the entrepreneur, a description of their business and how they plan to use the loan so you know exactly how your money is being spent – and you get updates letting you know how the entrepreneur is going.
  
The best part is, when the entrepreneur pays back their loan you get your money back – and Kiva’s loans are managed by microfinance institutions on the ground who have a lot of experience doing this, so you can trust that your money is being handled responsibly.

One of the things I really enjoy is getting the monthly update email from Kiva which tells the status of my microloan repayments.  This month, I had $17.66 payed back and I decided to reinvest it in another entrepreneur, which I did.  My loan selection criteria is as follows.  My first choice is a female entrepreneur in a country where I have spent time, usually a solopreneur, where I can easily see how the loan will increase her ability to expand her business and help support her family. To date I have made loans to 5 women in Peru, 1 in Pakistan, and 1 in Samoa – all places I have been.

So, I just made a loan to an entrepreneur named Otgonbat Tseesuren in Mongolia, a place I have not yet been.  They still need another $2,025.00 to complete their loan request of $2,775.00 (you can loan as little as $25.00!).  Help me get this entrepreneur off the ground by clicking on the link below to make a loan to Otgonbat Tseesuren too:

http://www.kiva.org/app.php?page=businesses&action=about&id=125293

It’s finally easy to actually do something about poverty – using Kiva I know exactly who my money is loaned to and what they’re using it for.  And most of all, I know that I’m helping them build a sustainable business that will provide income to feed, clothe, house and educate their family long after my loan is paid back.

Join me in changing the world – one loan at a time.

Thanks!

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What others are saying about www.Kiva.org:

‘Revolutionising how donors and lenders in the US are connecting with small entrepreneurs in developing countries.’
– BBC

‘If you’ve got 25 bucks, a PC and a PayPal account, you’ve now got the wherewithal to be an international financier.’
– CNN Money

‘Smaller investors can make loans of as little as $25 to specific individual entrepreneurs through a service launched last fall by Kiva.org.’
– The Wall Street Journal

‘An inexpensive feel-good investment opportunity…All loaned funds go directly to the applicants, and most loans are repaid in full.’
– Entrepreneur Magazine

Help by doing this now at: http://www.smallthingschallenge.com

You can also help by spreading the word to your friends via email, Twitter, Facebook status updates, or IMs.

Intel’s Small Things Challenge is a campaign based on the premise that every small action can make a big difference. It aims to raise awareness and money for two of the worlds most pressing challenges — increasing access to quality education and fostering economic development in emerging countries.”

So I clicked, they donated, and I learned more about this effort.  So, go visit the website, click, and then help spread the word!  All it takes is a little time!

Four years ago I met Beau Perry from a Bay area company, AIDE, Inc., at the Green Business Conference in San Francisco.  Their specialty was doing this type of online cause marketing campaigns where a corporate sponsor would pay a certain amount for each click on a link sent out via email to the nonprofit partner’s distribution list – only one click a day was allowed per person for the duration of the campaign.  The emails provided information both about the nonprofit and the corporate sponsor, as did the website where you were taken by the link to click.  The email also allowed you to invite others to join in so the word was spread virally giving the sponsor increased exposure.  I participated in one that benefitted sea turtles in Sri Lanka after the tsunami.  They had a great concept so I interviewed Beau for my book.  I was sad when I learned that AIDE, Inc. was defunct but glad to see the idea lives on!

I first heard about Alex from Christine Kloser, of Love Your Life Publishing and the Get Your Book Done Program.  Christine is my book coach and will be publishing my book.  Christine’s will be promoting her new book, the Freedom Formula, through a Virtual Book Tour that Alex is helping her with. 

Doing some research, I learned about Alex’s SmartStartGiving micro-giving program to benefit Kiva. According to the email I received after signing up for notification about future SmartStartGiving calls, “SmartStartGiving (SSG) is a consortium of micro-fundraisers with the objective to become the organization that funds the most Kiva small businesses in 2008.  The collective aim of SSG is to utilize the leverage of micro-fundraising to empower entrepreneurs in developing countries to uplift themselves out of poverty forever!”

Alex’s email also stated “In 2008, the final Friday of each month will be designated as “Kiva Micro-Fundraising Day”.  I’ll donate a minimum of $500 out of my own pocket and request micro-donations of $10, $20 and $50 from entrepreneurs on our SSG subscription list … just like YOU.”

The “micro-fundraising” calls start at 8am Pacific (11am Eastern) and will be 40 minutes in duration.  Here’s the remaining 2008 schedule is: June 27th, July 25th, August 29th, September 26th, October 31st, November 28th, and December 26th. Alex extends an open invitation to join in and pass on the word to as many entrepreneurial friends and colleagues as possible.

What a great idea!  Alex is helping raise the visibility of Kiva, an organization with the mission ”to connect people through lending for the sake of alleviating poverty.  Kiva is the world’s first person-to-person micro-lending website, empowering individuals to lend directly to unique entrepreneurs in the developing world.”  He is also raising dollars from his broad network to support his efforts with the developing country entrepreneurs Kiva assists.  And, by choosing Kiva as the organization to support, the donated resources go to specific entrepreneurs, not into some big black hole.  Cool, eh?

I plan to be on his next teleseminar for SmartStartGiving and will make a donation – I like Alex and what he is up to…AND microfinance is the cause I selected a couple years back as the primary focus for Business Nonprofit Connections, Inc.’s philanthropic efforts.  Join us!