Filling the Gap Between Farm and Fair Trade

In combatting poverty, a giant informal economic system has quietly emerged in Africa. Women participate in micro-finance organizations that loan money in order to allow them to create businesses and become self-managing.

Many subprime borrowers in the United States are financially unable to buy a home themselves. An unconventional lender is trying to make it easier for low-income people to buy houses despite the tighter requirements that other lenders adopted after the mortgage bust.

A overview of 2014's Fixes columns - connecting the dots between 60 or so ways that people are trying to change the world.

In Oakland, a company created an online crowdfunding platform that allows users to earn interest by financing clean energy projects and gives people with good social intentions a direct line of action. Across the world, there is a growing movement toward people-powered clean energy.

Farmers in Vietnam face rising sea levels but rejected the city's water engineering projects. They prefer gradual measures to cope with climate change so scientists have allowed the farmers to steer the conversation.

Louisiana and Vietnam both need affordable solutions to rising sea levels. Leaders from Vietnam visited Louisiana to compare ideas.

Most insurance companies avoid insuring poor farmers because the transaction costs are too high, but a non-profit in Kenya created a sustainable way to cover them.

Ecological toilets that use natural composting to break down waste are simple to construct, waterless and are easy to fix. But as philanthropists are finding, getting these to those that need it most is harder than anticipated.

54 million people in the United States, and 4.5 billion globally, have no credit to their name - making it nearly impossible for them to buy homes, apply for jobs and receive loans. Investors and lenders make an effort to help those with 'invisible credit' scores in financing essentials like homes or cars.

The company that manufactures Lifestraw, a water purification device, has found a way to distribute their product to impoverished Kenyan families for free, while still making a profit. In the global carbon credit market, businesses receive carbon credits for projects that reduce greenhouse gas emissions. These credits can then be sold to companies who need to offset their carbon emissions, allowing green companies to make a profit off of their small ecological footprint.