Client News and Media Recognition

Rick Ingersoll urges support for entrepreneurs in developing nations.

 

February 8, 2011 (HILTON HEAD, SC) – Rick Ingersoll, author of The Frugal Travel Guy blog and The Frugal Travel Guy Handbook, is advocating support for Kiva.org, an online lending platform that allows individuals to make loans of any size to help alleviate poverty in developing nations.

 

Ingersoll supports Kiva.org through his membership in the FlyerTalk.com Lending Team. FlyerTalk is a large community forum for frequent-flier travelers. The administrators of the site organized its Lending Team for Kiva.org in 2009 and Ingersoll joined the team as part of his commitment to help others.

 

“As world travelers, we become extremely aware of the differences between our lifestyles and the quality of life in other countries, especially the poor and the working poor,” he said. “My son [travel photographer Andrew Ingersoll] sent me a simple photo of a Laotian girl in her mountain village near Luang Probang. And that image is, for me, the essence of why I love to travel. The difference between this girl’s life and mine is stunning. Dirt streets, raw log construction, bare feet, and laundry on the line. In contrast, I was sitting in an Oceanfront Suite in Kauai at the time. That photo reminds me to be grateful for the things I take for granted, and to give back whenever possible.”

 

As a member of the FlyerTalk Lending Team, Ingersoll makes zero-percent interest loans to entrepreneurs in developing countries “to give them the opportunity to improve the quality of their lives and those of their families,” he said.

 

Kiva.org works with local NGOs (non-governmental organizations) who screen needy applicants who want to start or expand their small businesses to ensure their families’ survival. Lenders like Ingersoll can loan as little as $25 or as much as they want.

 

“I have yet to have a loan not be repaid,” he noted. “And as the funds are repaid back into my account, I re-lend them to others in need.”

 

In December of 2010, FlyerTalk reported that its Lending Team had made 2,527 loans through Kiva.org, totaling $78,350. (For more information on Kiva.org, including how to join or start a Lending Team, visit www.kiva.org.)

 

Rick Ingersoll also announced recently that he is donating all proceeds from sales of The Frugal Travel Guy Handbook to the Wounded Warriors Project until further notice. For more information on Ingersoll, visit his blog, The Frugal Travel Guy.

 

About Rick Ingersoll:

Rick Ingersoll, author of The Frugal Travel Guy Blog and The Frugal Travel Guy Handbook, is constantly on the lookout for the best credit card and debit card sign-up bonuses. He posts travel tips daily on debit and credit card deals and on other interesting promotions with the goal of reducing his readers’ travel costs today and for the rest of their lives. He is also available for seminars and speaking engagements. A retired mortgage banker, Ingersoll and his wife live in Hilton Head Island, SC, and Traverse City, MI, when they’re not traveling the globe.