The first thing greeting visitors to kiva.org’s home page is a photograph and description of a “featured business”. It could be a Ugandan cobbler, a Peruvian farmer or a shopkeeper in Tajikistan. Users can make small loans to these entrepreneurs and, during the course of the loan, receive e-mail updates from their borrowers. More than $13m has been raised in the two years since the website was launched, reaching 20,000 people in developing countries.

What is happening on kiva.org reflects three big trends in philanthropy. For a start, the activities of the website’s users are global, with donors sending funds to far-off countries. Second, donors are looking for feedback on the impact of their donations. And third, technology is powering the transaction, facilitating the donation as well as providing information on the needs and the benefits of the funding.