Recently I came across the concept of "social investment".If you think,it's something to do with charity,then your absolutely wrong.It's a novel concept of offering micro credit to those who need small amount of money to start up a business or any other means of livelihood,mostly in rural areas.Charity as a concept is not sustainable in a vast country like India where almost 42% of the population lives below the international poverty line of $1.25 a day.We need some sustainable solution through which the poor people can be offered financial help.This is where the concept of social investment crops in.
One of such non profit organization that allow Indians to help their fellow Indians is rangde.Visit
http://www.rangde.org.
Under this concept,you are supposed to invest in multiple of hundred rupees(you can also prefer to invest hundred rupees).You get to see the profile of the rural entrepreneurs who need money and you can choose to select any one you wish to help.This money is then sent to the borrower through an NGO which partners with rangde.
Now comes the interesting part,unlike charity,you will get your money back and that too with interest.This money will be repaid by the borrower in a period of 1-2 years(even earlier than this).You can choose to invest your interest that you earn or put forth more money.It's more like the investment that you make elsewhere but the only difference is that you are helping fellow poor Indians and you also get a small amount of interest on the money that you invest.
I really liked the business model that these people have followed.You can read the details of their business model on wiki.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rang_De
