VOTE to determine who receives our 5th Kiva.org loan! Holiday edition - polls close after 11/28!

With many of our members preparing to give thanks this week for all they currently enjoy, now is an appropriate time to share our good fortune with those in need.

As a few of you already know, we at NikeTalk recently allocated $6,820 to Kiva.org, a non-profit organization that helps facilitate loans to entrepreneurs in developing nations.

We've now issued four loans totaling $6,350. This week, we'll be determining the recipient of our fifth loan - and we'd like your help deciding.

Please take a moment to review the profiles of these five groups. Vote for your favorite, and once the polls have closed we'll try to complete their request, lending up to the $1,600 and change remaining in our Kiva.org account.

Mohamed Conteh Group
Harriet Nakimwero Group
Inocencia Ortiz Group
Oun Chhoen Group
Sona Ahmadova

Don't worry - this is FAR from our last Kiva.org loan. Once our previous loans have been repaid, we'll be able to lend that money out again and again. Already, our first loan has been 50% repaid and our second loan is now 10% repaid.

You can keep track of all our kiva.org loans to date by visiting our lender page: www.kiva.org/lender/NikeTalk

If you'd like to support the loans that did not receive the most votes - or any of the loans facilitated by Kiva - please consider registering. You can even join NikeTalk's lending team and have your loans counted towards our community totals on Kiva's leaderboards. Watch out team New York and Rice University... we're coming after your spot. So far, we have 21 members on Team NikeTalk - but only two of you have made loans. Frank and Nathan have been carrying us so far. Let's pick it up! You can loan as little as $25 and, once it's paid back, you can just cash it out if you like - or lend it again and again. For less than the cost of a t-shirt, you can help change someone's life for the better.

Thanks to the 23 of you who participated in our vote. (Most NT users' favorite number.)
The Oun Chhoen Group's loan has now been fully funded:




Given our current balance, we'll probably wait for a few installment repayments before initiating another loan selection process.

Thus far, we've loaned a total of $7,700 through Kiva - meaning we've already loaned more than our initial allocation was $6,820, thanks to the receipt of three repayment installments thus far.
As you can see, this is a gift that keeps on giving and I know everyone on our staff is looking forward to the opportunity to help many additional entrepreneurs via Kiva.org in the months and years ahead.

I hope you'll consider getting involved yourselves and, if you do, give some thought to joining us on Team NikeTalk. We're already one of the top teams in the 'common interest' category, surpassing large cities and universities in our total loan amounts - yet our 21 members have issued only made 7 loans and three of those have been made by our NikeTalk community account. This is a great way to pitch in, help deserving entrepreneurs around the world improve their lives and their communities, and to help represent our community in a positive light. NT has always been different from other sneaker websites out there in that NikeTalk has always been about people more so than product.