"Amazing things will happen, if you just ask," said Pim Techamuanvivit, aka Chez Pim, the creator of Menu for Hope, and a speaker at last night's Net Tuesday in San Francisco. It was by asking that she got food bloggers and other food lovers to donate raffle prizes to Menu for Hope like tea with Harold McGee, coffee with Thomas Keller, and dinner with Eric Asimov. And it is working. As of this writing (5:15 PM PST) the Menu for Hope campaign has been up for about 3 days and has already sold $12,510.00 in raffle tickets to benefit the UN World Food Programme. Techamuanvivit attributes the campaign's success to, "Community with a capital C." Most of the people who donate and bid on the prizes are part of the food blogging community.

Matt Flannery also started Kiva by asking his community for help. He and his wife emailed their wedding guests and asked them to fund seven entrepreneurs in Africa. Kiva, "grew in concentric networks of community," Flannery said. They are presently providing $20,000 a day in loans to aspiring businessmen and women who are working their way out of poverty.

The audience had more questions than we had time for: Have you ever had prizes not be delivered? How do you prevent fraud? How do guarantee that the entrepreneurs are reputable? Both speakers explained different ways that they protect their donors, but in the end their answers were the same. Trust. Kiva chooses their lenders through recommendations from highly regarded microfinance institutions (MFIs). Techamuanvivit "knows" all of the people who donate prizes through the food blogging community. Neither project can 100% guarantee that all of their loans will be paid back, or that all of the prizes promised will be delivered, but so far their track records are good. Kiva has had a 0% default rate on their loans and Menu for Hope only had one prize not be delivered because of a shipping problem--you are not allowed to ship salt to Italy. "I guess they have enough salt in Italy," said Pim smiling.

As Kiva and Menu for Hope grow, will that circle of trust be broken? Probably. Computers may make few errors, but humans do. Are their new models for fundraising still inspiring?  Absolutely.

Photo Credit: Trust Fall by Barrett Anspach.

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