Are you searching for a wedding favor idea that will do more than gather dust or be thrown away after the wedding? If the idea of helping others as your wedding "favor" interests you, but you would like to make a more definable impact on a specific person's life, then visit Kiva.org.

Kiva.org is not about making donations, but about making loans to low-income entrepreneurs in developing nations. The loan requests run from several hundred dollars to less than $2,000, and are conveniently made through PayPal. You can loan as little as $25 to help someone get their dairy farm up and running or to help buy supplies to run a tailoring business, for example. When the total amount of the loan is funded, then one of Kiva's microfinance institution (MFI) partners administers the loan to the entrepreneur. The entrepreneur repays the loan over the span of 6 to 18 months to Kiva, via the MFI partner.

During this time, you can read journal updates about the progress of your sponsored entrepreneur. After the loan has been re-paid, you can choose to re-loan to another entrepreneur or withdraw the principal.

I really like this idea as an alternative to the traditional wedding favor (picture frames, candies, etc.) because the money directly helps an impoverished entrepreneur support his or her business. Twenty-five dollars is a nominal amount for most of us and is definitely much less than what is usually spent on typical favors.

After the wedding day has come and gone, it is nice to know that a tiny part of your special day went to help someone improve his life and that of his family.