Recap- -Goal 91- donate to 5 useful websites

This was originally posted on my other blog for my small business Bike Cozy. And if you look at that blog you'll notice the posts were few and far between.

I've been steadily ticking off goals on my list and want this to be a recording of them. You're welcome to follow along, maybe you'll be inspired to achieve some of your goals too!


original posted January 15 2010

I have a list of 100 goals. Some are a little silly: goal 86- Master a british accent. Others are serious: goal 20- Go back to school, and goal 37- Build a house.

The first goal I've made a good start on is:
Goal 91- Donate to 5 websites I find or have found useful

The first three donations were easy:

1. BikePortland.org : Beyond being a great source for bicycling news in the Portland area, BikePortland.org supports local entrepreneurial craftspeople by hosting BikeCraft. It's how I got my start making bicycling accessories.

2. EtsyHacks : this website is pure utility for etsy sellers. It offers quality Mozilla add-on scripts that offer all sorts of useful shortcuts and buttons to make selling more eficient. I tried a few out and am so grateful for their existence.

3. Wikipedia.org : This site is cemented into computer culture forever. I've looked up all sorts of things over the years and giving back made sense.

Then I got stumped. What other non-profit websites have I used? hmmm. . . oh yeah when I was first learning how to get around Portland by bike I looked up routes on...

4. Bycycle.org : an interactive route planning map for cyclists in the Portland area.

Then I was really stumped. I only needed one more site to complete my list of 5 and finish my first goal of the new year! The answer came last night as Ian and I were unwinding in front of his magic movieboxscreenthing and Hulu played a commercial for Kiva. I'd seen the same commercial a dozen times but always forgot by morning. Today, thanks to goal 91, I googled "person to person lending Hulu" and it returned a link to the Kiva website.

After browsing the entrepreneurs I was almost frozen by possibilities. Finally, I loaned $25 to a farmer in Samoa. To think, it's because of free internet t.v. that I found out about Kiva and am now an international financier!

5. Kiva.org : "...the world's first person-to-person micro-lending website, empowering individuals to lend to unique entrepreneurs around the globe."

Goal 91- complete!