First, Get a Worthwhile Cause; Then Get Wired

One of the newest of these social-change start-ups is the tiny Lend4Health, which raises money to provide small loans to families of children with autism spectrum disorders to pay for alternative biomedical treatment. Inspired by Kiva, Lend4Health was created from scratch using blogging software by Tori Tuncan, a consultant in the Washington metropolitan area and the mother of a toddler with sensory issues. The site has facilitated about $15,000 in loans so far and remains small in scale. Yet the stories of the children and their families are compelling.