If you have family out of town like me, you probably have and will spend a ton of shipping Christmas gifts this year. If you want to save the Fed Ex fees and hassle, you can send your friends and family this little compact gift card. It mails perfectly inside a sparkly Christmas card!

PRICE: $10 – $500 selectable increments

Help Your Loved Ones Make a Difference:

• Gift card recipients can choose to support an entrepreneur like Myrna in the Philippines, who sells clothing and needs $350 to purchase more ready-to-wear clothing and a tricycle to grow her business.  Or someone like Rosa in Nicaragua, who started a tortilla business with her loan from Opportunity International to literally build a roof on her home and make enough money to send her kids to school. At www.opportunity.org/give, recipients can read Myrna and Rosa’s stories, as well as those of other entrepreneurs, to learn more about their goals and aspirations.
• All proceeds from its purchase go towards funding small business loans, often referred to as microloans, to economically marginalized people in 20 different countries who are trying to work their way out of poverty.

• About 85 percent of loan recipients are female, as women tend to re-invest back in their communities, especially concerning healthcare and education for children.

Here’s How the Holiday Gift Card program Works:

• Gift givers simply visit opportunity.org/giftcard to purchase a tax-deductible gift card for a friend, family member or business colleague.  Once purchased, the gift card can be printed, e-mailed or mailed.
• Gift recipients visit opportunity.org/giftcard to redeem the card and fund a loan to an entrepreneur profiled on the site whose business they’d like to invest in. Users can select from hundreds of entrepreneurs around the world, operating a wide variety of businesses. Once the gift card is redeemed, the card recipient can receive updates on the entrepreneur whose loan they funded.

• Life-changing loans to entrepreneurs in the developing world, made through the purchase of a “Spread the Joy” gift card, are part of a working solution to poverty around the globe that results in thriving communities.  Such a loan is also a gift that truly keeps on giving.  Once the entrepreneur repays the loan, the money is loaned again by Opportunity International to change the life of another entrepreneur, and then another, and so on… for many years to come.