Despite the sour economy, organizations that use the Internet to make microloans appear to be thriving, reports The Wallet, a Wall Street Journal blog on personal finance.

Several nonprofit and commercial groups use Web sites to allow users to make low-interest loans of about $100 to $1,000 to entrepreneurs in developing countries. On the blog, Shelly Banjo, a reporter for Dow Jones Newswires, writes that Kiva.org, a charity lender, and MicroPlace.com, a business operated by eBay, are appealing to philanthropic Americans during the current financial crisis.

“Credit markets world-wide are tight, and charitable donations are down. But Web sites that specialize in ‘microlending’ — small loans mainly to the working poor — say they’re thriving as they address both issues. They’re doing it by allowing people who want to do good but are strapped for cash to lend instead of give,” she writes.

Read The Chronicle’s article about Kiva and similar Web sites. (A paid subscription or free temporary pass is required to view the Chronicle article.)

What do you think? What other nonprofit activities are thriving despite the down economy?