By taking out a mortgage with ING, Dutch borrowers can now help families in Bangladesh and India build homes of their own. Through its new Huis voor een huis (Home for a home) program, ING's clients are given the option of donating EUR 300 when they sign for their mortgage, an amount the bank doubles to EUR 600.

To maximize the impact of those donations, ING has partnered with Dutch non-profit Wereldfoundation. Instead of simply handing out the money, the foundation provides microfinancing; borrowers who have previously taken out a business loan and have shown that they're financially responsible, are eligible for a home loan. As the microloans are paid back, the money can be made available to more borrowers, with the goal of helping entire villages build new homes.

At a time when banks are seen as epicenters of avarice and incompetence, it's a well-considered approach to being generous. For many more examples of branded benevolence, check out trendwatching.com's Generation G briefing. (Related: Buy one house, give one free — Matching program doubles Kiva loans — Shoes for good.)

Website: www.ing.nl/huisvooreenhuis

We've written about a few different sites focused on helping friends share expenses, including general-purpose BillMonk and Wigadoo for outings. Now a new contender out of Finland has come to the table with a novel e-commerce twist.

Scred—short for "street credit"—allows friends, groups and communities to manage their collective money. Its Pools feature, first of all, is designed to help friends keep track of who owes what during a joint excursion, for example. Friends all sign up for the same pool when they know they'll need to track expenses together, and then they input each cost incurred as they go along. The system will track debts between people, balance debts and shared expenses and then calculate who owes what in the end—even using multiple currencies. The Pools function is free to use, and is also available via mobile phone.

Perhaps even more interesting, however, is Scred's MiniCorps feature—now in beta—which can be used to take in money and have it automatically accounted by Scred. Aimed at users such as associations, trip organisers, charity groups and artists, MiniCorps serve much like virtual companies as they allow groups to sell items or collect fees and donations through a Scred shop, track both income and expenses, and calculate profits and losses. MiniCorps are free to use during the feature's beta period; all money is handled via PayPal.

With the growing number of sellsumers out there, eager to earn some extra cash during these tough economic times, we'd bet Scred's MiniCorps feature will be met with a particularly warm reception. What else could help sales-oriented consumers make the most of their bottom line...?

Website: www.scred.com
Contact: scred@scred.com

Spotted by: John Greene

Back in March, we featured SmartyCard, a program for kids that combines educational games with virtual and real-world rewards. Focusing on an older crowd, GradeFund offers college students the opportunity to be rewarded for academic achievement.

GradeFund lets students recruit sponsors—usually friends and family—who donate money for each good grade. Participating students upload their transcripts at the end of each term and GradeFund verifies them and then collects funds from the sponsors, who can set their own criteria such as sponsoring students from their alma mater or choosing specific grade levels to sponsor. They can determine donation amounts for each grade, from as low as USD 5. GradeFund also allows employers to find students anonymously through their performance record, potentially netting students job and internship offers. So far, over 16,000 people have signed up for the program.

With the cost of college increasingly difficult for students (and parents) to cover, innovative programs that provide an alternative to loans and scholarships are only going to get more popular. If you're in financial services or education, time to get involved?

Website: www.gradefund.com
Contact: support@gradefund.com

Spotted by: Susan Johnston

Entrepreneurial types may already be familiar with Ideablob, the online community where big thinkers and small business owners can exchange feedback on their business ideas. Credit card issuer Advanta sponsors the site, which launched back in 2007, and now it's adding live events billed as "open mic nights" for great ideas.

Bloblive is a networking event that's essentially intended to be a live version of Ideablob: Attendees air their business ideas in front of a live audience of fellow participants in exchange for advice, feedback and connections. The first Bloblive was held in Philadelphia last fall; since then, it has been expanded to Nashville, San Diego and Los Angeles as well. Events are held several times a month, with entry priced at USD 10; both venue and "brain food" are provided. Memberships are also available for USD 20 per month, providing free access to all local events as well as pitch coaching, members-only breakfasts and other benefits. Bloblive events are also streamed online; updates are broadcast on Twitter.

Just because the economy is a shambles, that doesn't mean the end of entrepreneurship—in fact, in many ways, it's the ideal time to launch something new, as we've noted before. The swelling ranks of entrepreneurs, minipreneurs and sellsumers can use support both online and off—one to bring to (aspiring) entrepreneurs near you? (Related: Professional feedback, instant and peer-to-peer — Tech support for minipreneurs.)

Website: www.bloblive.com
Contact: hello@ideablob.com

Ever since the internet became an integral part of daily life, we’ve become accustomed to securing a wide range of online identities with usernames and passwords. But what happens when someone passes away, leaving their family and business associates unable to access their email, online photos, financial accounts and other online assets? It’s a problem that San Francisco-based startup Legacy Locker aims to solve.

Legacy Locker lets people store details for every online account they use, from Gmail and Facebook to eBay and PayPal. They can assign different digital assets to different beneficiaries, who are entrusted with access details in the event of the customer’s death or disability. Users can also prepare letters for the loved ones to whom they’ve entrusted their accounts. Legacy Locker, which launched last week, uses a multi-step verification process to ensure that the digital assets are as secure as a real safety deposit box. (Related: A virtual vault for information-age valuables.)

Website: www.legacylocker.com
Contact: www.legacylocker.com/support/contact

Spotted by: May Almero-Cruz