Gigaom is reporting that Natalie Portman is supporting the microfinance issue through Finca International. She’s bringing the message to Myspace. For those unaware, one of the areas of microfinance is the practice of lending miniscule amounts of money (miniscule to us with higher living standards of course) to individuals and businesses in third world countries. A couple of dollars can make a huge difference to these people.

I’ll be talking about these concepts very often. Generally, people don’t understand the power that small incremental changes can make over the long term. Even though this has been beaten into people time and again, its always helpful to illustrate with an example. Take a $1,000 investment. With the magic of compounding over 20 years @ 10%, it turns into $6,727.50. With the magic of compounding over 20 years @ 11%, it turns into $8,062.31. Shocking to some, but not to many!

Now, microfinance is a difficult balancing act, because the amounts are so small, it’s difficult to achieve scale in this matter and make it a viable business concern. However, there are many, many charities that are trying to achieve results. Some are good, some are not.

Choose wisely.