Foreign Aid

"After doing this for a couple of years, we saw what it could do to help people and how exciting it is personally. I realized there was a great opportunity to connect people to what we were doing in a larger way," Ledford explains. Eventually, he established his own organization–Change Micro Funding, which is a tax-deductible micro-lending program. In the six months that the organization has existed, dozens of people have began to participate and Ledford believes the number will grow into the hundreds by the end of the year. "These people have a level of passion, but not the time and availability to do all the things I've done. They're extremely interested in the concept, though," he points out. "We're trying to provide the conduit that helps participants get involved in something greater than themselves and at the same time help these micro-banks around the world look towards a larger single funding source rather than get small loans from individuals to fund their operations."

Change Micro Funding has partnered with its founder's church to provide loans to entrepreneurs in locations where the church conducts mission work. In 2008, the church will visit five countries: the Dominican Republic, Zambia, South Africa, Thailand, and Guatemala. Members of the Change Micro Funding board will contact banks that have existing micro-lending programs within these countries to identify recipients of the organization's loans.

In the last 12 to 18 months alone, Ledford has donated more than $20,000 of personal money to various micro-lending organizations. His personal mission is to bring economic change and a solid infrastructure to developing countries through the use of micro-loans. Change Micro Funding allocates its resources so that 80% of funding is distributed directly to micro-lending, 10% provides charitable gifts within the lending countries, and the remaining 10% supports continuing research to advance the organization's mission. Volunteers staff the organization, so all of the contributions go toward the work of alleviating poverty in the world's poorest areas. "As advisors, one of the greatest opportunities is to give back and be agents of social change. We need to do all we can to help people, especially those who lack the opportunities we have," Ledford concludes.

Staff Editor Kara P. Stapleton can be reached at [email protected].