Microfinancing: Long-tail world saving

Microfinancing is the practice of providing financial services to poor people, by helping them accumulate usably large sums of money through small transactions, frequently less than 100 US dollars.

Because its model parallels long-tail powerlaws, microfinancing may offer the most effective form of mass philanthropy for the digital age.

Last week, Queen Rania of Jordon and Actress, Natalie Portman publicly announced a plan to triple the assets of Finca International, one of the pioneers of microfinancing.

Quoting the Press Release:

"’I have seen that ending poverty is possible – it is just a mouse click
away,’ said Ms Portman, whose video diary about Finca’s work will
feature on its page on MySpace, the social networking website. ‘People
check their MySpace pages 10 times a day, why not harness that tool to
build support for microfinance.’"

With greenconsumerism and social entreprenuership currently the hot topics of the day, are we also on the cusp of a new form of long-tail world saving?

Read the full press release here