REVAMP YOUR PIGGY BANK

If you’re ready to give your finances an ethical shake-up, here’s the lowdown on some of the organisations that can help you

Crowd funding

As its name suggests, this is about raising small amounts of money from a large group of people, via the internet. At its simplest, individuals can post a request for money, to fund anything from medical procedures to new headphones, and wait for compassionate givers to do the rest. Some crowd-funding platforms, such as Kickstarter, specialise in tech and creative projects. Crowdfunder, a UK platform, has raised over £60m for start-ups, charities, community groups and sports clubs to date.

Effective altruism

Effective altruism funds pool hundreds of donations, and are managed by experts who find the highest impact organisations to make grants to, which are often not open to individual donors. You might like to go a step further and join a community of effective givers. Giving What We Can’s vision is a world in which giving 10% of our income to the most effective organisations is the norm (givingwhatwecan.org).

Microfinance institutions

MFIs works with poor and lowincome people who lack access to conventional banking, usually in the developing world. Providing small loans helps these individuals to develop microenterprises and move out of poverty. Lend With Care (lendwithcare.org) is a kind of benign Dragons’ Den for entrepreneurs in the developing world. Energise Africa allows you to put money into companies providing African families with access to clean, affordable solar energy (energiseafrica.com).

Good With Money

Lisa Stanley and Rebecca O’Connor founded Good With Money in annoyance at the way most money websites focused on either saving or making money, with little or no information on whether providers were nice or nasty to their customers,