If you ever worked with any non-profit you know they are pretty behind on technology. But there is a new wave of non-profit organizations being built as “Technology Non-Profits”. Not your typical charity where they use technology, but a whole new way to solve a problem by the means of technology. Vittana is one of those companies.
Kushal Chakrabarti and Brett Witt founded Vittana in 2008 to help bring students loan to students on the developing world. It’s a type of Social Lending, but with the focus on helping kids to get a degree.
Huffington Post has named Vittana one of the 10 Ultimate Philanthropy Game Changers. That’s no small feat for a company that is just two years old and gets this kind of national attention by one of the largest media organizations on the web.
You can go to Huffington Post and vote for Vittana and help bring attention to this great local startup, affecting the world. Maybe this will trigger more tech non-profits to be created in Seattle and make this an even more vibrant community. So go give a 10 for Vittana at HuffPost.
Back in August, I donated $200 for a student in Nicaragua for her to study Pharmacy through Vittana. She got the $1,000 she needed through many donors a month later. I actually made a mistake and I thought I was *giving* her the money and not *loaning* and early this week I’ve got an email from Vittana saying she paid back part of her loan and I was getting $16.
One thing to keep in mind, and why Vittana is such a game changer, is that because of exchange rate and cost of living, whatever you donate has 10-50 times more value in a developing country. So, you giving $100 for a student is the equivalent of you giving $1,000-$5,000 here in the US.
So, your action items are simple:
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Give a 10 for Vittana at the Huffington Post
- Go to Vittana.org and donate $100 for a student in need.
- And since we are taking about donations, today is the last day for you to contribute to Seattle 2.0’s Social Media Challenge by DonorsChoose and since you are giving $100 to Vittana why not give another $100 for a classroom in need in the US?