Riches For Good

How Will You Measure Your Life?

2012-06-29T10:48:00.001-06:00

For Father's Day, I received Harvard Business School guru Clay Christensen's book How Will You Measure Your Life? The book is a 206 page version of his 6 page article in the Harvard Business Review by the same name. Were the 206 extra pages warranted? I'm undecided, but here are a few of the topics on which I was glad I had some additional instruction from Professor Christensen:

1) Segmenting the market on the job you're "hiring" a product to complete
2) Strategizing, and the reality that everyone is pursuing a strategy, whether intentional or not, based off of how they're spending their time and money
3) Determining what capabilities you need to be successful in the future, and making sure you don't outsource those key capabilities

In writing this blog post, I've decided that the second item above is what made the book worth purchasing and reading. But regardless of whether you decide to read the whole book, do yourself a favor and (re)read the 6 page Harvard Business Review article.

The Answer: Local Social Entrepreneurship

2011-12-26T14:54:00.000-07:00

What is local social entrepreneurship the answer to, you ask? Potentially a wide variety of issues, but with respect to this article's title, it's the answer to this question I posed over two years ago: "Where does idealism fit into my busy life?"

This blog's author, Ryan Gunderson, with his wife and two sons

Not long after that post, with my wife's permission I seriously considered transferring to the Mumbai, India office of my former employer, Medtronic. Four interviews in, it became clear to me that although I might have tremendously enjoyed the marketing manager job in India if I had no wife or children to look after, the fact remained that I did have a wife and one child (now two). And while I greatly respect individuals such as Paul Farmer, John Wood, Muhammad Yunus, and Paul Polak for the work they have done to help the world's poor, I frankly see myself spending far more time with my family than I believe they have afforded themselves. On to Plan B...

Plan B had become quite clear to me by the middle of 2011: I needed a new career path that could keep me engaged while keeping me married. Scandalized? Don't be. I want to remain engaged in my work by continually learning things that are interesting to me while feeling that my work is making a positive difference in peoples' lives. And I want to remain happily married by having more time with my family and not making my wife feel like a single parent due to my travel, which had averaged around 25% during my years in marketing for a global company.

The solution I came up with? Own a local business, providing a service that helps local people and allows me to see my family each night. "Sounds like a non-profit," my wife said. Perhaps, but the big difference is that I will be earning an income by providing a valued service to an underserved population rather than diverting a portion of donations to cover my salary. The industry I chose for my new local social entreprise is called "home care," in which my agency and similar agencies provide in-home companionship, homemaking, and personal care to the elderly, disabled, and people recovering from surgery -- even new mothers. It's a relatively new industry, and if it's not immediately clear to you why this service fills an unmet need, ask a half-dozen people and more than one of them is likely to tell you something along the lines of "I wish we had known about that service for my (grand)mother, who unfortunately died a few years ago. We tried to care for her as best as we could..."

I have adopted the following mission statement for my agency, which I am running as an independent owner and operator of Synergy HomeCare:

Our mission is to help people realize their unlimited potential. In pursuing our mission, we...
...desire to positively impact the lives of everyone with whom we come into contact
...demonstrate love, patience, and gratitude in all our interactions
...promote health, learning, and family in a thoughtful and respectful manner
...provide predictability for ourselves and others, including but not limited to finances, time, quality, etc.

My agency became licensed in the State of Colorado earlier this month, and I expect to serve my first clients in January 2012. I'm excited to be a social entrepreneur serving an underserved population in my own backyard. It's the best of both worlds, for now at least. I continue to donate funds to organizations that focus on the developing world, including Room to Read, One Acre Fund, and BYU Hawaii, while seeing my family each day.

Best wishes for a happy and healthy 2012!

The Job My Wife Accepted For Me

2010-12-19T21:53:00.001-07:00

Two years ago at our annual holiday party, my general manager offered me the role of Community Council chair, overseeing Medtronic's philanthropic and volunteerism efforts in the Denver metro area for a two year period. Speechless, my mind raced through thoughts of how much time would be expected of me in this volunteer role, how I already felt stretched with other responsibilities at work, home, and in the community, and how this opportunity did not even fit in with my focus on the developing world. Embarrassed at my lack of response, my wife nudged me and jumped in with "I'm sure Ryan would love that, wouldn't you, Ryan!" I found myself agreeing, "Yes, thank you so much for the opportunity." The rest is, as they say, history.

Looking back at this past year, I'm so glad my wife accepted the Community Council role for me. I am especially grateful to have worked so closely with a group of individuals who care so much about helping others. Here are a few of the biggest highlights:

United Way Drive: In 2009, our Louisville, Colorado office raised $38K for our local United Way, including $ for $ matching from our Minneapolis-based Medtronic Foundation. Medtronic was the largest donor for our local United Way last year, which is all the more reason that our 47% increase to $56K this year was so rewarding.

Holiday Food Drive: Our 2010 food drive competition ended last Friday, December 17, and up until a few days before the judging it looked like a quiet year. I initially thought the United Way Drive had increased at the expense of the Food Drive; however, we continued to share inspiring stories with employees and to incite competition among teams. In the end, teams contributed and pledged $30K worth of food, money, and time, up from $18K the year before, for a 67% increase.

Foundation Grants: For each of the past several years, the Medtronic Foundation has entrusted our local business unit with about $50K to grant to local non-profits in the areas of health, education, and human services. Based on the strength of our grant decisions in 2010 and our pro-active identification of additional unfunded opportunities, the Foundation upped our 2011 allocation by 50% to $75,000. Rocky Mountain Youth Clinics is one of the organizations we funded in 2010 that has worked hard to develop a partnership with us.

Community Fair: About 150 of our 300+ employees came out to our Community Fair in August to meet the non-profit partners we selected earlier in the year. Our Community Council especially highlighted the Volunteer Grants program, under which employees can apply for a $500 grant from the Medtronic Foundation after completing 25 volunteer hours with a qualifying non-profit. How did we get such a good turnout? We called it the iPads and iCecream Community Fair, and attendees got gourmet ice cream and a chance to win a free iPad.

Walkathon and Bikeathon: Brain cancer and Parkinson's are two conditions that Medtronic products treat, and we had about 40 total employees participate in a walkathon and bikeathon raising awareness and funds for those conditions.

Giving Tree: In addition to our annual food drive, around the holidays we also collect toys for needy children in our community. This year we collected 60 toys.

Project 6: Medtronic's mission statement has six tenets, the sixth being "to maintain good citizenship as a company." Accordingly, during the sixth month (June) of each year, Medtronic asks every site worldwide to designate a service project as our Project 6 volunteerism project. This year about 15 employees from our facility volunteered with Habitat for Humanity, and based on employee interest that's likely to increase next year.

I had a great deal of fun working with my colleagues on activities to give back to our community. Despite my initial concerns about being overstretched, I'm very glad my wife accepted this role for me. And I'm equally glad to be passing off the baton in the new calendar year, though I plan to remain involved in a different capacity.

Managing Your Charitable Giving Budget

2010-11-09T20:50:00.008-07:00

If you haven't yet depleted your 2010 charitable giving budget, it's time to assess your funds, update your giving criteria, identify the organizations that best fit your criteria, and allocate your funds among those organizations.

Assessing Funds: My wife and I set our charitable giving funds as a fixed percentage of our annual household income, such that when our income increases (or heaven forbid, decreases), our dollar amount adjusts accordingly. In my experience, agreeing on a percentage of income before calculating the dollar amount can help ease sticker shock. And agreeing on a budget frees us up to spend more than we otherwise might.

Giving Criteria: During the last several years, we spent almost 100 percent of our discretionary* charitable funds on the causes I am passionate about in the developing world. Drawing on my experience managing a philanthropic fund at work, this year I suggested to my wife that we should target 20 percent of our discretionary funds on local causes. My wife lit up at the opportunity to direct funds in our own community; although she agrees with me that in theory funds can go farther in the developing world, like many people she gains greater satisfaction in helping those closer to home. Our funds both locally and internationally are targeted toward solutions to help socioeconomically disadvantaged populations realize their unlimited potential, focusing especially on sustainable distribution of products and services related to health, education, and agriculture.

Organizational Fit: When I created this blog over five years ago, I originally used primarily financial criteria to make funding decisions. Now, I filter organizations primarily based on fit with my giving criteria, using CEO salary as a secondary financial filter to gauge charitable intent of the organization. For example, here's how I rated One Acre Fund:

Socioeconomically Disadvantaged: High (target the "extreme poor" in Africa)
Sustainable Distribution: High (98% repayment rate; near-term target to cover 70% of field costs with client revenue)
Health: Mid (target reduction in deaths of children age 0-2, with early data suggesting they're succeeding)
Education: High (training the extreme poor is central to their core values)
Agriculture: High (target farmers, who account for 75% of world's extreme poor)
CEO Salary: $13,000 (well below the $147,000 average)

Fund Allocation: Portfolio theory suggests that diversification is key. And many people with whom I've spoken believe that the more organizations they fund, the greater their impact, even if that means each organization gets only a small amount of money. But I subscribe to the theory that in charitable giving, fewer is better. With philanthropy, your money can be magnified by your volunteering and fundraising efforts. I find it easier to advocate for a few organizations I'm intimately familiar with, rather than for dozens of organizations about which I know little. Granted, especially as you're getting started, you will have some winners and losers just like in your non-charitable investment portfolio. For example, last year I funded four relatively young organizations. Two were wildly successful (One Acre Fund and Room to Read), so I doubled my investment in both organizations this year, while cutting funding to the other two. Since local giving is new for me this year, I'm funding more organizations in lower amounts.

Perhaps these reflections on my personal giving, based also on my management of a philanthropic fund at work, will help you to be more intentional and strategic in your own giving. If you have other suggestions that may benefit me or other readers, please leave them in the comments section.

*Note: my wife and I do not treat tithing (10% of our income paid to our church) or monthly fast offerings (value of two foregone meals) as discretionary funds

If you could share 200 words with the world...

2010-10-27T21:09:00.006-06:00

I have long been interested in languages and cultures, and somewhat recently I came up with the crazy idea that I would love to speak the world's 10 most common languages so I could communicate with over half the world's population. Obviously that's an ambitious goal, so to start more modestly I thought "what would be of greatest value for me to say in those 10 languages?"

So here's the question - if you could share 200 words with the world, what would they be? Here's what I came up with:

I believe that as sons and daughters of God, all humans have unlimited potential. When we choose to pursue our own interests instead of God's, we fall short of our God-given potential. However, through Jesus Christ we can overcome our imperfections and turn our weaknesses into strengths. Jesus lived a perfect life by putting God's will before His own, and He sacrificed His life for each of us. To fully benefit from Christ’s sacrifice, we must have faith in Him, repent of our sins, be baptized by someone with God's priesthood authority, receive the gift of the Holy Ghost, and keep His commandments. If we do these things, our reward will be never-ending happiness with God, our Father in Heaven. Although the journey to return to live with our Father in Heaven may seem difficult at times, prophets and the Holy Spirit will guide us, and God will never allow us to face challenges greater than we are capable of handling. I pray that after this life, we will celebrate together for the choices we made that led to our eternal joy. In the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

If you have expertise in another language and would like to help me with translation and pronunciation, please let me know!

Poverty Snobs

2010-08-17T23:33:00.000-06:00

Hello, my name is Ryan, and I am a poverty snob. Or at least I was. I don't really really know anymore...

What, exactly, is a poverty snob, you ask? Please consider the following conversation, which poverty snobs regularly engage in:

Poverty Snob: "I have a passion for [insert one of the Millennium Goals here]."

Unenlightened American: [thinks "that's weird" but says] "That's interesting. However, I've never understood why people have to travel across the world to do good when there are so many needy people in their own backyard."

Poverty Snob: [thinks "if only you knew what I know and had seen what I've seen..." but says] "You may be surprised to know that over 3 billion people -- about half of the world's population -- live on less than $2 per day. That's $700 per year per person, or less. However, in the US, the poverty threshold for a family of four is $22,000, or $5,500 per person. So although some Americans live in relative poverty, billions of people in Africa, Asia, and Latin America live in absolute poverty. Those are the people I am passionate about helping."

In an effort to help the poorest of the poor and to bring justice to the world, the poverty snob may overcompensate and convince himself that people in the developing world are far more worthy of his help than people in the developed world. However, if he really stops to think about it, he realizes that he originally started helping the global poor because he wanted all people everywhere to have an opportunity to realize their full potential. Last I checked, most Americans are far from perfect and could therefore use assistance in achieving their unlimited, God-given potentials, no different from people in the developing world. Like Nathan Price, the poverty snob's once noble goals carry the risk of deteriorating into selfish pride unless appropriately kept in context.

I still have a strong interest and passion for the developing world, but I plan to try harder going forward to keep my passion in check, so that I may be filled with a pure love for all of humanity. I believe that, as sons and daughters of God, people everywhere have unlimited potential. And I intend in all of my interactions to help others to achieve their unlimited potentials, regardless of where they live.

Book Review: The Poisonwood Bible

2010-07-04T12:38:00.004-06:00

If you're reading this blog, chances are you have intentions to do good in the world. But do you ever take a step back to question your intentions? The Poisonwood Bible is a fascinating read that can help you do just that.

Barbara Kingsolver's novel is set in the Congo, where Reverend Nathan Price relocates his family with the intention to save souls. Each chapter is written from the perspective of Nathan's wife or one of his four daughters. From their narratives, it is clear that some of the girls look at the Reverend with awe, some with disgust, with some conflicted between the two. At least that's how it was in the beginning...

Over time, it becomes obvious that Reverend Price has his priorities confused. His family members imply that Nathan believes he is doing the Lord's will in the Congo. However, the actions that they document demonstrate a stubborn pride on Nathan's part, paired with an ignorant certainty that everything he does and says is right. He rules over his family as an unloving tyrant, and he preaches hellfire and damnation to the community with an attitude devoid of patience, mercy, or grace. Unsurprisingly, any goodwill from his family or the community at the beginning of his mission fades to nothing over time. When Mobutu's regime takes over in the Congo, Nathan ignores the counsel of family members and financial supporters to flee the country. Within short order, the country becomes a hell on earth for many inhabitants, not least of all the Prices.

Hopefully few of us can relate closely to Nathan Price. However, we are all imperfect, and despite our once pure intentions we can all lose sight of what we hope to accomplish, instead vainly pursuing the wrong goal. Pride is a particularly dangerous fault, because the more of it we possess, the less likely we are to acknowledge any need for self-reflection or change.

I recommend The Poisonwood Bible for anyone who has ever aspired to make a positive difference in the world.

Book Review: The Art of the Start

2010-04-26T12:39:00.005-06:00

Guy Kawasaki says that one key to winning over potential investors is to "provide enough detail to prove you can deliver and enough aerial view to prove you have a vision." He follows own advice perfectly when writing The Art of the Start. Kawasaki concisely yet engagingly provides numerous practical lists and examples in his book, written for "anyone starting anything." Despite its largely tactical focus, Kawasaki starts and ends the book with strategic discussions about life and business.

Kawasaki opens the book by sharing that he seeks "to enable people to create great products, build great companies, and change the world." He suggests that aspiring entrepreneurs should seek not just to make money, but rather to make meaning. He challenges readers to complete the following sentence: "If your organization never existed, the world would be worse off because _____."

In the chapters that follow, Kawasaki provides helpful and practical information on topics such as pitching to investors, taking notes, generating leads, selling, executing, hiring and firing, etc. For example, on note-taking, he writes: "The visible act of taking notes says: 1) I think you're smart. 2) You're saying something worth writing down. 3) I'm willing and anxious to learn. 4) I'm conscientious."

Kawasaki ends the book reminding readers that "There are few joys greater than helping others." He encourages people to consider what they'll want people to remember about them when they're dead and to live life so as to not disappoint.

The Art of the Start is a solid, readable, tactical yet visionary book. I highly recommend it for people who wish to be better, more effective people, regardless of whether they're specifically considering starting up an organization.

Book Review: The Power of Half

2010-03-31T14:47:00.002-06:00

I'd love to meet the Salwen family. The book that Kevin Salwen and his daughter wrote, titled The Power of Half, paints the family as one that has fun together, that loves one another, and that enjoys helping other people. In those regards, I feel that we have a lot in common. In fact, anyone who values fun, love, and family should find the Salwens' story to be heartwarming, though it may take a few chapters to warm up to them.

The reason it may take awhile for readers to relate to the Salwens is that they owned a 6500 square foot mansion that they sold for around $1.5 million, donating half of the funds to The Hunger Project to help with sustainable economic development in Ghana, and using the other half to purchase a "smaller" house about half the size of the first. Since the home I own is less than 3000 square feet to begin with, I have a difficult time relating to "downsizing" to a house greater than 3000 square feet (though I must confess that growing up, our family of eight lived in a house over 3000 square feet). Secondly, the idea of donating around $800,000 to a single charity is something that few people, including very rich people, can relate to. Don't let these facts bog you down; continue reading past the initial stages of shock and you will be rewarded.

Kevin is a former journalist and editor for the Wall Street Journal, and in addition to an engaging writing style, he throws into his prose equal parts humor, humility, and love for his family. The real star of the book is his daughter, Hannah, who is credited with pushing her parents and brother to be a family who does things rather than just talking about them. She co-authors The Power of Half, adding her perspective in two-page segments once or twice per chapter.

It seems that for the Salwens, the "easy" part was deciding to downsize their house and donate the savings to charity. The more difficult parts: selling their house in a bad economy, physically moving (which is always a chore), sharing their story with others who had a hard time relating to what they were doing, and deciding the best way to invest their funds to make an impact.

The Salwens do not try to convince others that everyone should downsize their house and donate large sums of money to organizations fighting poverty in Africa. However, they do try to convince others of "the power of half." For example, take something like television. Say you watch four hours of television per week. Why not cut that in half and use the two hours you saved to serve in your community? Say you buy four cups of gourmet coffee per week. Why not cut that in half for a period of time and donate the difference to charity? The Salwens unabashedly let others know happiness comes, in part, from individual and collective sacrifices to benefit others.

I recommend The Power of Half to anyone who questions whether the pursuit of money, possessions and status will lead to happiness.

Who Will Invest in Social Business?

2010-03-05T12:31:00.006-07:00

I find myself very drawn to the concept of social business, as introduced by Nobel Prize winner Muhammad Yunus. In his book Creating a World Without Poverty, Yunus defines a social business as a non-loss, non-dividend company. In this post, I will discuss Yunus' definition of social business and the implications for investors.

So, what exactly is a non-loss company? First of all, it is not a non-profit. The term "non-profit" implies that organizational revenues must not exceed organizational expenses. The term "non-loss," on the other hand, implies that organizational expenses must not exceed organizational revenues. This wording change may seem insignificant to some, but it has huge implications. For example, although some non-profits generate revenue by providing goods or services, most non-profits owe their viability at least in part to charitable donations. Non-loss businesses, however, are intended to be financially self-sufficient, remaining viable because the goods and services provided by their organizations are valued and paid for by their customers, not because of charitable donations. Profit is not a dirty word for non-loss companies, as long as profits are reinvested in the social business.

Although profit is appropriate and necessary for non-loss companies, social businesses are not intended to be profit maximizing businesses. Instead of maximizing financial returns for investors, social businesses maximize social returns. Which brings me to Yunus' second part of his definition: social businesses are non-dividend companies.

Why must social businesses be non-dividend companies? Honestly, I'm not sure that they must be. In fact, Yunus' first social business, Grameen Danone, provided a small dividend to its investors. Presumably, through his experience, Yunus has determined that when trying to balance financial returns with social returns, financial returns are often sought at the expense of social returns. Therefore, in order to reduce the likelihood of mission drift, he prefers to remove financial rewards from the mix altogether. Investors earn back their initial investment, but nothing more. Their returns come in the form of lifting people out of poverty or some alternate social metric viewed as important by investors. The more I consider it, perhaps separating social returns from financial returns is the best approach to avoid organizational and investor frustration.

But then it begs the question, who will invest in social businesses?

On the one hand, it sounds absurd to invest one's retirement funds in a business that may or may not return the initial investment and certainly will not return more than the initial investment. Some socially-responsible investments, such as those offered through Calvert Foundation or MicroPlace, at least offer a one to three percent return on funds invested. When compared with a money market, some investors could reasonably feel that they are getting close to a market return while sacrificing only slightly to make a difference in the world. Not so with social businesses as defined by Yunus.

But on the other hand, investing in a social business may not appeal to human generosity to the same degree as giving to charity. It feels inherently good to give away money to help young children, victims of natural disasters, or people who've otherwise been dealt a bad hand in life. Investing in social businesses may feel downright uncharitable to some.

However, social businesses will draw two types of new investors: 1) socially minded individuals who have never invested in startups, and 2) those whose donations to charity are limited not so much by their lack of financial resources but by their belief that non-profits are inefficient and ineffective. Funds for the first type of new investor will, at first, be diverted from other charitable investments, while funds for the latter type of investment will come largely at the expense of excess consumption. Investors will say, "rather than giving $100 to Nonprofit XYZ or spending it at LuxuryGoods XYZ, either of which has questionable value, I will instead invest in SocialBusiness ABC, which looks very promising and may even return my money to me for future reinvestment." As social businesses begin to prove their effectiveness, the overall pool of philanthrocapital (that is, the combination of philanthropic donations and social investment capital) will grow.

I have recently made donations to two organizations that seek financial self-sufficiency in the near term: Living Goods and One Acre Fund. Today, neither organization is a social business, because neither is a non-loss company. I hope that both Living Goods and One Acre Fund will successfully transition to social businesses within the next several years and that other organizations will follow the same path, building social business into a sustainable, scalable alternative for capital flows, be they human, financial, or otherwise.

Poverty Escape Guidelines

2010-02-11T19:36:00.000-07:00

The guidelines Nobel Prize winners Muhammad Yunus and Grameen Bank use in determining whether a Grameen Bank member has escaped poverty are shown below, as referenced in Yunus' book Creating a World Without Poverty:

1. The bank member and her family live in a tin-roofed house or in a house worth at least 25,000 taka (roughly equivalent to $370). The family members sleep on cots or a bedstead rather than the floor.

2. The member and her family drink pure water from tube-wells, boiled water, or arsenic-free water purifiedby the use of alum, purifying tablets, or pitcher filters.

3. All of the member's children who are physically and mentally fit and above the age of six either attend or have finished primary school.

4. The member's minimum weekly loan repayment installment is 200 taka (around $3).

5. All family members use a hygienic and sanitary latrine.

6. All family members have sufficient clothing to meet daily needs, including winter clothes, blankets, and mosquito netting.

7. The family has additional sources of income, such as a vegetable garden or fruit-bearing trees, to fall back on in times of need.

8. The member maintains an average annual balance of 5,000 taka (around $75) in her savings account.

9. The member has the ability to feed her family three square meals a day throughout the year.

10. All family members are conscious about their health, can take immediate action for proper treatment, and can pay medical expenses in the event of illness.

I compared this list to my career mission to improve the lives of underserved populations through the sustainable distribution of products and services related to health, education and training, financial services, food, clothing, and shelter. They lined up as follows:

1. Shelter

2. Health

3. Education

4. Financial Services

5. Health

6. Clothing

7. Food

8. Financial Services

9. Food

10. Health

I am happy to see how well my career mission lines up with Yunus' poverty escape guidelines. It tells me that my focus is on the right track. Additionally, I'm humbled to recognize that although Yunus sets the bar very low for poverty escape, there are well over a billion people who would be unable to clear it...

Muhammad Yunus is a Dreamer

2010-02-10T22:12:00.000-07:00

I recently finished two books written by Nobel Prize winner Muhammad Yunus, the father of microcredit and founder of Grameen Bank. I first read Yunus' autobiography, Banker to the Poor, which I enjoyed so much that I immediately followed up with Creating a World Without Poverty, his introduction to the concept of social business. I recommend both books.

Rather than provide you with my own summary of the two books, I encourage you to read the best summary: Yunus' Nobel Prize acceptance speech, which is available in full text by clicking here.

By Yunus' own admission, he is a dreamer. Below is a wish list of his dreams as recorded in Creating a World Without Poverty:

There will be no poor people, no beggars, no homeless people, no street children anywhere in the world. Every country will have its own poverty museum. The global poverty museum will be located in the country that is the last to come out of poverty.
There will be no passports and no visas for anybody anywhere in the world. All people will be truly global citizens of equal status.
There will be no war, no war preparations, and no military establishment to fight wars. There will be no nuclear weapons or any other weapons of mass destruction.
There will be no more incurable diseases, from cancer to AIDS, anywhere in the world. Disease will become a very rare phenomenon subject to immediate and effective treatment. High-quality healthcare will be available to everyone. Infant mortality and maternal mortality will be things of the past.
There will be a global education system accessible to all from anywhere in the world. All children will experience fun and excitement in learning and growing up. All children will grow up as caring and sharing persons, believing that their own development should be consistent with the development of others in the world.
The global economic system will encourage individuals, businesses, and institutions to share their prosperity and participate actively in bringing prosperity to others, making income inequality an irrelevant issue. "Unemployment" and "welfare" will be unheard of.
Social business will be a substantial part of the business world.
There will be only one global currency. Coins and paper currency will be gone.
Technology will be available with which all secret bank accounts and transactions of politicians, government officials, business people, intelligence agencies, underworld organizations, and terrorist groups can be easily detected and monitored.
State-of-the art financial services of every kind will be available to every person in the world.
All people will be committed to maintaining a sustainable lifestyle based on appropriate technologies. Sun, water, and wind will be the main sources of power.
Humans will be able to forecast earthquakes, cyclones, tsunamis, and other natural disasters precisely and in plenty of time to minimize damage and loss of life.
There will be no discrimination of any kind, whether based on race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, political belief, language, culture, or any other factor.
There will be no need of paper and therefore no need to cut down trees. There will be biodegradable reusable synthetic papers, in cases where "paper" is absolutely needed.
Basic connectivity will be wireless and nearly costless.
Everybody will read and hear everything in his own language. Technology will make it possible for a person to speak, read, and write in his own language while the listener will hear and the reader will read the message in his own language. Software and gadgets will translate simultaneously as one speaks or downloads any text. One will be able to watch any TV channel from anywhere and hear the words in his own language.
All cultures, ethnic groups, and religions will flourish to their full beauty and creativity, contributing to the magnificent unified orchestra of human society.
All people will enjoy an environment of continuous innovation, restructuring of institutions, and revisiting of concepts and ideas.
All peoples will share a world of peace, harmony, and friendship devoted to expanding the frontiers of human potential.

John Wood Leaving Microsoft Quotes

2010-01-03T18:05:00.003-07:00

My post on Mountains Beyond Mountains Quotes (a biography about Dr. Paul Farmer) is by far my most popular post to-date. In an attempt to increase exposure to John Wood, his excellent book Leaving Microsoft to Change the World, and his amazingly efficient and effective non-profit Room to Read, I’m following a similar format for this post.

All quotes in this post come from the autobiography Leaving Microsoft to Change the World, and unless otherwise specified, they are quotes from its author, John Wood.

“In this village, we have a primary school, but no secondary school. So after grade five, no more schooling takes place unless the children can walk two hours to the nearest school that teaches grades six and above. But because the people are poor, and they need their children to help with farming, so many of the students stop education too early.” (Pasupathi, responsible for finding resources for 17 schools in Nepal, page 5)

“I found it hard to imagine a world in which something as random as where you were born could result in lifelong illiteracy.” (5)

“Is this all there is—longer hours and bigger payoffs?” (6)

“The company could rely on me, but friends and family could not.” (6)

“Books were considered precious. The school had so few that the teachers did not want to risk the children damaging them. I wondered how a book could impart knowledge if it was locked up, but kept that thought to myself.” (9)

“Perhaps, sir, you will someday come back with books.” (The headmaster of a school in Nepal to John Wood, forever changing his life, page 10)

“Many trekkers come through this area, and many have said that they will help us. But they do not come back and we do not hear from them again.” (A teacher in Nepal, page 10)

“I never enjoy listening to people talk about why things cannot happen, so I changed the subject.” (13)

“Of the 850 million lacking basic literacy, the UN estimated that two-thirds were women…The next section revealed that over 100 million children of primary-school age were not enrolled in school.” (23)

“[Andrew Carnegie] had used his wealth to set up over 2,000 public libraries across North America. Three generations after his death, they were continuing to pay dividends…I did not possess Carnegie’s wealth. But I had a thirty-year head start on him.” (24-25)

“My inner voice nagged…Are there thousands lining up to help poor villages build schools and libraries? That job is not being done. You should rise to this challenge.” (37)

“Despite my fears, this felt like the right thing to do. I knew my life would be happier, even if I did not yet know how to survive financially as a global do-gooder.” (37)

“The world is full of risk-averse people. I knew that a lot of them would not be shy about offering their opinion that I should stick with the known, safe path.” (37)

“For most of our lives, we are taught to act in accordance with society’s expectations. I would soon defy them. My entire life had been on a predictable trajectory dominated by a couple of university degrees and thirteen years of white-collar employment. My identity was defined by my career. I now planned a radical shift, a big leap into the unknown: from corporate executive to unemployed guy setting up libraries in the Himalayas. I prayed that I would be decisive and follow through on my gut instinct.” (37-38)

“…my title and my career no longer seemed important to me…” (44)

“I loved that [Jimmy] Carter thought big. He also got results: the world’s poor benefited from a 97 percent decline in the reported cases of guinea worm disease, from 900,000 in 1989 to fewer than 30,000 by 1995.” (50)

“Plan B: Take consulting gigs…As an ex-Microsoft exec, I could probably command a high hourly rate. Cut living expenses. Spend one-third of time consulting and two-thirds of time on my education projects in Nepal…This way, clients who paid me for consulting would end up subsidizing my charity work.” (65)

“What do you think it means that I am more excited by e-mail about a donation of a few hundred used Dr. Seuss books than I am about a million-dollar deal to license Windows to a major Chinese telecommunications company?” (67)

“I invest in people. Tell me first about your people, because if you have not gotten that right, then there is no hope for your organization.” (Bill Draper, page 83)

“Too much of the nonprofit sector has a nine-to-five mentality.” (Bill Draper, page 85)

“One of the often overlooked but most important skills that any young charity must have is the ability to sell its vision, its business model, and its programs to potential donors.” (87)

“My reaction to rejection was ‘No?’ Can I ask you to instead say ‘Not yet?’ ” (89)

“I wrote out five core principles that I would review before key meetings with prospective donors:
1) If the donors have money, then chances are good they have been helped in their own life with education. Play up the fact that they now have the opportunity to give that same gift back to hundreds of children in the developing world.
2) I can show donors a direct connection between what they give and what gets done as a result. There is a causal link between an $8,000 donation and a new school in Nepal. Some people don’t like to give money to charity because they don’t know where their money will go. In our case, we can show them exactly where their money went. It’s so tangible that we can send them photos, or they can visit the school or library in person.
3) We keep our overhead low, so donors will know that 90 cents on the dollar goes to the projects, not to administrative and fund-raising expenses.
4) Passion sells. There is not enough of it in the world, so when people meet a passionate individual, that person really stands out. When I tell donors that I quit a lucrative career in the technology world to devote myself to this cause full-time, and for zero pay, that will resonate.
5) People are looking for more meaning in their lives. Funding education provides a great feeling that you have helped to change the world for the better.” (94-95)

“We have big dreams, and I need to ask for your support to help us reach them.” (96)

“I might be wrong, but I think that guilt should not be used as a marketing tool.” (96)

“The problems facing the world today are immense. This is not a time for incremental thinking. If a cause is worth devoting your time to, then you owe it to yourself—and those you will serve—to think in a big way.” (116)

“His bias was toward action, not talk.” (John Wood speaking of Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer, page 139)

“I think that every organization, be it for-profit or not-for-profit, should decide what to measure and put those results at the bottom of their e-mails. Be it the number of meals served to the homeless, the number of students they’ve helped to get into college, or the number of people who’ve had cholesterol screenings, nothing focuses the mind quite like having to broadcast your results hundreds of times per day.” (140-141)

“There is a saying within Microsoft that ‘you cannot attack a person, but you can attack an idea.’ ” (141)

“I had, unrealistically, thought that we could run the organization on 5 percent overhead and continue to add countries to the mix at an insane pace.” (141)

“I plan to continue this tradition of encouraging employees to challenge my thinking.” (142)

“Any new organization will die unless every person it hires has passion for the mission.” (145)

“In Nepal…adult male illiteracy is a staggering 39 percent. But for Nepali women, the situation is even worse, with 75 percent of adult women unable to read or write a simple sentence.” (182)

“Educating girls is also a smart investment…Room to Read’s program, as an example, supports a girl by paying her school fees, buying her two school uniforms, two pairs of shoes, a book bag, and school supplies. She is also given health insurance, a bicycle (schools tend to be sparse in the developing world, so travel times are long), and a strong female mentor to look after the group of young scholars. The all-in cost of this wide-ranging package: only $250 per year.” (186)

“It dawned on me how lucky I am, to be working in a role that provides so many examples of basic human kindness.” (211)

“Children can be natural fund-raisers, and very entrepreneurial, if given the freedom to think creatively.” (224)

“True entrepreneurs are not afraid to declare to the world that they are going to fill a market gap or offer a new product or service, even if they are not yet entirely sure how they are going to do so.” (229)

“Once we declared a bold goal, thousands of people rallied around it.” (230)

Social Entrepreneurship Startup Capital

2009-12-30T12:39:00.006-07:00

Rachael Chong put together the most comprehensive list of startup capital options for social entrepreneurs that I've ever come across. Click here for the full article. Rather than rehash her work, I'll spotlight two sources that are new to me: Unreasonable Institute and Good Capital. Descriptions of both organizations come directly from their websites.

Unreasonable Institute

We unite up to 25 high-impact social entrepreneurs from around the world to attend our intensive 10-week summer institute. There, we will incubate their ventures with rigorous skill training and expert mentorship. At the end of the ten weeks, we will connect our Fellows with the start-up capital and global network of support needed to give their ventures wings.

We are looking for the world's most unreasonable, bold, and relentlessly determined young social entrepreneurs.

All ventures must effectively address a social or environmental issue, be financially self-sustaining within 1 year, have a model which can be scaled out of the country of origin within 3 years, and must eventually meet the needs of at least 1 million people.

First Light Ventures has committed $150,000 to establish the Unreasonable Village Fund. This fund will be exclusively dedicated to the entrepreneurs in our 2010 Institute and will give them the ability to invest in one another's ventures. Inspired by village banking models used in microfinance, this fund will test a hypothesis that entrepreneurs, working together and providing support to one another, will make highly intelligent investments in one another’s companies.

Good Capital

GoodCap’s Social Enterprise Expansion Fund (SEEF) provides growth capital to social enterprises that create innovative and self-sustaining solutions to the root causes of inequity in the U.S. and around the world. These enterprises leverage the power of the market to create positive social change, such as providing job opportunities for at-risk youth, helping developing world farmers become self sufficient, improving access to healthcare for low-income families, and supporting literacy and education efforts across the globe. These double- and triple-bottom line enterprises pursue social impact while seeking to build scalable and competitive businesses that generate attractive financial returns for investors.

The Social Enterprise Expansion Fund provides equity and equity-like growth capital to social enterprises that are ready to expand. We target social enterprises (both for profit companies and nonprofit organizations with earned income) with scalable business models that have the potential to create systemic and large-scale social change and generate an attractive return for investors who have the right kind of human and financial capital. Because we are at the forefront of the emerging social capital market, we have access to the best social investment opportunities in this space.

GoodCap is a hands-on investment partner, providing our portfolio companies with not only financial resources but also the human capital and strategic help they need to achieve their social missions and financial goals. For example, we helped our first portfolio company, Better World Books, enhance its social impact strategy by carving out an equity stake for its nonprofit partners and optimizing its partner funding model. Meanwhile, we also helped the company fine-tune its book pricing strategy, which will likely improve margins over the long term. During engagements with our portfolio companies, we are able to bring many valuable resources to the table thanks to the combined talent of our management team, advisory board, and vast networks, which bring expertise from the worlds of social investment, technology, entrepreneurship, venture capital, and philanthropy.

Overseen by an expert investment committee with decades of experience in venture capital, investment banking, operations, and social entrepreneurship, the Social Enterprise Expansion Fund is closely managed and applies the same rigor to due diligence and the bottom line and exit strategies of its portfolio companies as would a traditional venture capital firm.

Once Acre Fund Update

2009-12-15T19:50:00.004-07:00

I recently received an update on May 2009 to October 2009 highlights from One Acre Fund, one of the four organizations I recognized as 2009 Riches For Good Award winners.

A few key highlights:

Grew program size from 8,000 farm families to 12,000 farm families, serving more than 48,000 children

Had seventh harvest, increasing take-home farm income by 100% per acre, with 98% of farmers repaying program fees

Covered 45% of field costs through farmer repayments, up from 35% six months ago, which will continue to go up over time

The full report, and other performance reports from prior six-month periods, can be found by clicking here.

2009 Riches For Good Award Winners

2009-11-10T21:55:00.005-07:00

As we go into the 2009 holiday giving season, I am highlighting and funding four organizations that I believe are well aligned with my career mission to “Improve the lives of underserved populations through sustainable distribution of products and services related to 1) health, 2) education and training, 3) financial services, 4) food, clothing, and shelter.”

Health: Living Goods

Education and Training: Room to Read

Financial Services: Unitus

Food, Clothing, and Shelter: One Acre Fund

I have funded Room to Read and Unitus in the past, and I continue to be impressed with both organizations’ ability to scale their programs to reach more people in the developing world. Living Goods and One Acre Fund are both startups whom I have not funded previously, but I’m impressed with their management teams, strategies, early results, and their commitment to financial sustainability within three to five years.

Below is a brief description of each organization listed above. Italics denote that the content was pulled verbatim from the organization’s web site:

Living Goods

Living Goods operates Avon-like networks of door-to-door Health Promoters who make a modest income selling essential health products at prices affordable to the poor. The model combines the latest and best practices from the fields of micro finance and public health to create a truly sustainable system for improving access to basic health products and defeating the diseases of poverty. Living Goods is also a vital force of economic development, improving livelihoods by providing rural women a reliable source of income as Health Promoters, by keeping wage earners healthy and productive, and by averting costly medical treatments through prevention. Living Goods has a goal to become financially self-sufficient within five years.

Room to Read

We partner with local communities throughout the developing world to provide quality educational opportunities by establishing libraries, creating local language children's literature, constructing schools, and providing education to girls. We seek to intervene early in the lives of children in the belief that education empowers people to improve socioeconomic conditions for their families, communities, countries and future generations. Through the opportunities that only education can provide, we strive to break the cycle of poverty, one child at a time. Since 2000, Room to Read has touched the lives of 3.1 million children by building 832 schools, establishing 7526 libraries, publishing 334 children’s books, and providing scholarships to 8786 girls who otherwise would be unable to attend primary and secondary school.

Unitus

Unitus, an international nonprofit organization, fights global poverty by accelerating the growth of microfinance—small loans and other financial tools for self-empowerment—where it is needed most. Unitus works with 23 microfinance partners in India, Southeast Asia, East Africa, South America, and Mexico. These MFIs are growing 7 times faster than their peers, demonstrating the strength of their leadership and the promise of our approach. In just 8 years, we’ve helped our partners serve more than 9 million families.

One Acre Fund

Our mission is to empower chronically hungry farm families in East Africa to permanently lift themselves out of hunger and poverty. Our strategy is to provide a comprehensive investment package of high-quality seed and fertilizer, education courses, and access to output markets. Our method is to work through women’s self-help groups in rural villages to deliberately reach the most severely hunger-affected. Our measurable impact is fewer child deaths, lower child stunting rates, dramatically increased farm incomes, and permanent empowerment of the needy. One Acre Fund gets extra points in my book for attracting Room to Read founder John Wood onto its board. The organization has a goal to reach financial sustainability within three years.

Congratulations to the 2009 Riches For Good Award winners!

Where Does Idealism Fit Into My Busy Life?

2009-11-03T23:42:00.006-07:00

Ever since my wife completed her medical training in mid-2009, I have been able to spend significantly more time with her, and consequently, I have had much less time to devote to Riches For Good (both the blog and the concept). This time shortage has been compounded since the birth of my first son, Grant, in August. During the last couple months, I have spent considerable time contemplating how to incorporate my idealism into my increasingly busy life, an issue I’m guessing that many readers of this blog also face...

To direct me in my efforts, and to ensure that I’m spending time on the things that truly matter most to me, I created a vision statement for each of my four main responsibilities in life: 1) Family, 2) Career, 3) Community, and 4) Personal. Below are my vision statements, which I expect to endure well beyond my lifetime:

Family: Families can be together forever.

Career: A world in which all people can provide for life’s necessities.

Community: The world is my extended family.

Personal: As sons and daughters of God, all humans have the potential to become like Him

Based off of each vision statement, I created 50 year mission statements, 30 year long-term goals, 3-5 year mid-term goals, quarterly short-term goals, and weekly immediate goals. I also intend to review the list daily to make sure I’m doing the most important things each day. “How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives.” (Annie Dillard)

I’m happy to discuss these various facets of my life in response to queries, but for now I’ll write about career, since that’s where I decided most of my Riches For Good efforts fall:

Career Mission: Improve the lives of underserved populations through sustainable distribution of products and services related to 1) health, 2) education and training, 3) financial services, 4) food, clothing, and shelter.

30 Year Goal: Touch the lives of at least 1 million people in Asia, Latin America, Africa, or Eastern Europe.

3-5 Year Goal: Become a business manager for a Medtronic business unit in China, India, Southeast Asia, Latin America, Sub-Saharan Africa, or Eastern Europe.

Quarterly, Weekly, and Daily: goals are always being updated based off my current role as an International Market Development Specialist with Medtronic.

This updated vision and mission builds on a previous post from nearly two years ago.

International Social Business Program Rankings

2009-08-23T09:28:00.008-06:00

Below is my ranking of international social business programs. I started with the US News MBA rankings for top International, Marketing, Nonprofit, and Entrepreneurship programs. The top rated program in each field got 10 points, the 2nd ranked got 9 points, etc. Additionally, programs got 10 bonus points for each discipline in which they received a top 10 ranking. The results are below:

School	Int'l Rank	Mktg Rank	Non- profit Rank	Ent Rank	Int'l Soc Ent Rank
University of Pennsylvania (Wharton)	3	2	7	4	1
Stanford University	-	4	2	2	2
University of California--Berkeley (Haas)	10	9	3	7	3
Duke University (Fuqua)	6	3	6	-	4
University of Michigan--Ann Arbor (Ross)	4	6	5	-	5
Harvard University	8	5	-	3	6
Columbia University	5	8	8	-	7
Northwestern University (Kellogg)	-	1	4	-	8
University of Southern California (Marshall)	9	-	-	6	9
New York University (Stern)	7	-	9	-	10
University of Texas--Austin (McCombs)	-	10	-	9	11
Thunderbird School of Global Management	1	-	-	-	12
Babson College (Olin)	-	-	-	1	13
Yale University	-	-	1	-	14
University of South Carolina (Moore)	2	-	-	-	15
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Sloan)	-	-	-	5	16
University of Chicago (Booth)	-	7	-	-	17
Indiana University--Bloomington (Kelley)	-	-	-	8	18
University of Arizona (Eller)	-	-	-	10	19

Adoption - Introducing Grant Gunderson

2009-08-22T16:49:00.005-06:00

Grant Gunderson - pictured at 6 days old

Grant Gunderson was placed for adoption with me and my wife on Friday, August 14, 2009. The adoption process has been one of many reasons why I have not been able to devote a great deal of time to Riches For Good in recent months. Although this is a diversion from topics related to global poverty, I thought I'd take a moment to share my joy with everyone.

I certainly view adopting Grant as a way of spending my riches for good. And indeed, it cost a small fortune to adopt him, though the price was more reasonable through LDS Family Services than through many other adoption agencies. Birth mothers need not be LDS (otherwise known as Mormon) to place a child through LDS Family Services, but adoptive couples must be LDS to adopt through the agency. To help others who may not be LDS learn more about adoption, foster care, and orphans, I'm listing several top-rated charities listed on Charity Navigator:

JAFCO Children's Foundation: Jewish adoption and foster care

Coptic Orphans: Christian organization working with orphaned children in Egypt

All God's Children: dedicated to the orphaned and disadvantaged children of Honduras

Love Without Boundaries: changing the lives of orphaned and impoverished children in China

Half the Sky Foundation: nurturing care for China's orphaned children

Place of Hope: faith-based adoption, foster care, and child welfare

VisionTrust International: orphaned and neglected children in Latin America and Asia

Kids Alive International: rescuing orphans and vulnerable children

Orphanage Outreach: providing opportunities to orphaned, abandoned, and disadvantaged children

Children of the Nations: provides holistic, Christ-centered care for orphaned and destitute children

Kidsave: working to move older children out of orphanages and foster care and into permanent, loving families

Smoky Mountain Children's Home: foster care, adoption, etc.

Mission Without Borders - USA: working with abandoned/orphaned children

Children's Shelter of Cebu: care for Filipino children until adopted or reunited with their parents

Shaohannah's Hope: helping Christian families reduce the financial barrier to adoption

English as an Official Language

2009-07-04T08:36:00.006-06:00

When I went to Zambia last October, I was surprised that almost everyone there speaks English, including most of the poor rural farmers I met. It was obvious to me that although I lived in Thailand for two years as a missionary during the 1990s and gained a proficiency in the Thai language, I was able to communicate more easily in Zambia from day one since English is my native language. It opened up the idea that it may be easier for me to do business in an African country (or start a social enterprise there) than I had previously anticipated.

To open others' eyes, I'm listing all countries or territories where English is an official language, ranked by population. Note that although English is the predominant language in both the United States and Australia, apparently neither country has an official language. Click here to see a map of English speaking countries.

Population Rank / Country / Population
1 India 1,143,540,000
2 Pakistan 165,449,000
3 Bangladesh 161,300,000
4 Nigeria 148,093,000
5 Philippines 90,457,200
6 United Kingdom 61,612,300
7 South Africa 47,850,700
8 Tanzania 40,454,000
9 Sudan 38,560,000
10 Kenya 37,538,000
11 Canada 33,531,000
12 Uganda 30,884,000
13 Ghana 23,478,000
14 Madagascar 19,683,000
15 Cameroon 18,549,000
16 Malawi 13,925,000
17 Zimbabwe 13,349,000
18 Zambia 11,922,000
19 Rwanda 9,725,000
20 Hong Kong 6,985,200
21 Papua New Guinea 6,331,000
22 Sierra Leone 5,866,000
23 Singapore 4,839,400
24 Ireland 4,517,800
25 New Zealand 4,294,350
26 Puerto Rico 3,991,000
27 Liberia 3,750,000
28 Jamaica 2,714,000
29 Namibia 2,074,000
30 Lesotho 2,008,000
31 Botswana 1,882,000
32 The Gambia 1,709,000
33 Trinidad and Tobago 1,333,000
34 Mauritius 1,262,000
35 Swaziland 1,141,000
36 Fiji 827,900
37 Guyana 738,000
38 Solomon Islands 506,992
39 Malta 412,600
40 The Bahamas 331,000
41 Barbados 294,000
42 Belize 288,000
43 Vanuatu 226,000
44 Samoa 188,359
45 Guam 173,000
46 Saint Lucia 165,000
47 Saint Vincent and the Grenadines 120,000
48 Micronesia 111,000
49 U.S. Virgin Islands 111,000
50 Grenada 106,000
51 Tonga 100,000
52 Kiribati 95,000
53 Jersey 89,300
54 Seychelles 87,000
55 Antigua and Barbuda 85,000
56 Northern Mariana Islands 84,000
57 Isle of Man 80,058
58 Dominica 67,000
59 American Samoa 67,000
60 Bermuda 65,000
61 Guernsey 61,811
62 Marshall Islands 59,000
63 Saint Kitts and Nevis 50,000
64 Cayman Islands 47,000
65 Gibraltar 29,257
66 Turks and Caicos Islands 26,000
67 British Virgin Islands 23,000
68 Cook Islands 20,200
69 Palau 20,000
70 Anguilla 13,000
71 Tuvalu 11,000
72 Nauru 10,000
73 Saint Helena 6,600
74 Montserrat 5,900
75 Falkland Islands 3,000
76 Norfolk Island 1,828
77 Niue 1,600
78 Christmas Island 1,508
79 Tokelau 1,400
80 Pitcairn Islands 50

Below is a summary of African and Asian countries in the top 20:

Africa: Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania, Sudan, Kenya, Uganda, Ghana, Madagascar, Cameroon, Malawi, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Rwanda

Asia: India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Philippines, Hong Kong

Small Things Lead to Great Things

2009-05-26T18:10:00.003-06:00

"Wherefore, be not weary in well-doing, for ye are laying the foundation of a great work. And out of small things proceedeth that which is great." -- Doctrine & Covenants 64:33

I at times get bogged down in my efforts to do good, feeling that things aren't moving quickly enough. However, I believe I am doing a number of small things that are providing some value today while setting a foundation for greater things to come. Reading the above passage today was a good reminder to keep things in perspective.

Without a Cell Phone I Am Nothing

2009-05-10T18:28:00.002-06:00

When I first heard people in the economic development space talk of rolling out mobile phone networks to serve even those making less than $1 a day, I thought they were promoting a consumerism culture that would hurt the poor more than help them. I thought cell phones were a luxury good since even I had only recently started using one regularly.

After traveling to Zambia last October, my perception is much different. I met Nell, a woman who buys tomatoes from farmers and resells them at the market for a profit. When I saw that she had the same model of $20 cell phone that I purchased when I arrived in the country (since my BlackBerry wouldn’t work on the local phone system), I asked her why she uses a cell phone. She shook it in front of my face and said, “Without this I am nothing.” She went on to explain that since she travels miles into the countryside and transportation is very expensive, it is much more convenient and economical for her to call farmers prior to making a trip to their farms.

Basically, Nell uses a cell phone for the same reasons I use a phone: productivity and convenience. The difference is that when I got my first cell phone, I already hand a land line and a vehicle. So even though my first cell phone was largely a luxury, I would go so far as to call Nell’s cell phone is a necessity for her, enabling her to increase her income and raise her quality of life.

A key takeaway for me from this experience is to not rush to judgment before fully understanding the context. And in order to understand the context, it is important to get out and do field research.

Universal (But Unequal) Healthcare in Brazil

2009-05-10T17:25:00.003-06:00

I recently traveled to Brazil for a medical conference, and according to the surgeons and businesspeople with whom I spoke during the trip, healthcare coverage is something that is available to every Brazilian via the public hospital system. However, that doesn’t mean that all people receive equal healthcare treatment. Of Brazil’s approximately 200 million residents, perhaps 20% of them, or 40 million, have private insurance that offers reasonable coverage. Among the ~40 million insured by the private sector, plans vary widely in what is covered. There’s definitely a “bargain” option that covers less, while premium offerings can provide state of the art care at top facilities such as Albert Einstein hospital in Sao Paulo, which I’m told is on par with other top hospitals in the world. Out of a sense of duty to serve mainstream Brazilians, as well as out of a desire to feel challenged, most surgeons in Brazil work at both a private and a public hospital.

There is much talk about universal healthcare in the United States these days. I am by no means trying to hold up Brazil as the model for healthcare in the US. But as a country with a per capita GDP of $10,300 vs. the United States’ $48,000, Brazil shows that some degree of universal healthcare can be offered to all citizens, even of relatively poor countries. In per capita GDP terms, Brazil ranks 103 out of 238 countries in the world.

Book Review: The Blue Sweater

2009-04-05T15:10:00.008-06:00

Many people dream of doing something great in retirement. Not Jacqueline Novogratz. Perhaps I’m way off base here, but after reading her first installment of memoirs in The Blue Sweater, I’m not convinced she dreams of retirement at all. And if she did, it would be hard for me to imagine her pursuing anything with greater purpose than what she has already been working on during the first chapter of her life.

With the exception of a brief jaunt into her childhood to introduce her favorite blue sweater after which the book was named, Novogratz begins the book interviewing for an international banking job with Chase Manhattan Bank, which she landed straight out of college. Her goal was to change the world, and she hoped that traveling the world and gaining international business experience in this new role would be a strong foundation.

After just a few years, Novogratz’s international banking job led to positions with the African Development Bank and UNICEF, working in Côte d'Ivoire, Kenya, and Rwanda. Novogratz was generally met with skepticism from locals, who knew the languages and the culture far better than she, and who were also several years her senior. She was even threatened or intimidated on at least a few occasions. But despite the cards being stacked against her, she helped Rwandan women to start a microfinance organization and a bakery, and she gained plenty of real-world experience working with women in poverty. And somehow, these wins overshadowed the frustrations and allowed her to continue on toward her lifelong goal to change the world.

Novogratz was accepted into the Stanford Graduate School of Business, where she earned her MBA and grew her network. On the advice of John Gardner, an esteemed professor and mentor of hers at Stanford, she accepted a fellowship with the Rockefeller Foundation rather than moving to Czechoslovakia to work on a fund that would build small enterprises there. Since she knew her life’s goals were all focused internationally, it did not make sense to her that she should live and work in the United States. But John told her to “focus on being more interested than interesting” and to put new and different tools in her toolbox.

After her one year fellowship, she decided she would leave philanthropy and to start a for-profit business that employed low-income people. She told Rockefeller Foundation president Peter Goldmark that philanthropy was too frustrating a sector because of its lack of accountability. Goldmark convinced her to stay on at Rockefeller and to figure out how to bring greater accountability to the philanthropic sector. Novogratz started the Philanthropy Workshop at the Rockefeller Foundation, with a goal to train a corps of philanthropists, providing them with networks, knowledge, and skills necessary to tackle the world’s problems.

The Rwandan genocide of the mid 1990s had a profound impact on Novogratz, especially given her experience there during the 1980s. She returned to Rwanda on several occasions “in an effort to understand what happened there.” She devotes a significant portion of the middle of her book to her follow up travels to Rwanda and the stories of despair and hope that came from the genocide. In fact, The Blue Sweater was a 10-year project kicked off by her writings following the genocide.

In 1999, Novogratz reached a crossroads. Down one road, she had an offer from a major financial institution to lead a philanthropy program for clients with net worths over $100 million. Novogratz’s salary would have been seven times what she was making at the Rockefeller foundation. Down the other road, Novogratz had been kicking around ideas of starting a non-profit venture fund that would invest in entrepreneurs who could lead sustainable organizations that help millions of the world’s poor. She turned down the lucrative offer and instead chose to pursue her passion. With $5 million in funding from the Rockefeller Foundation and $2 million from the Cisco Foundation, she started the Acumen Fund, which gained status from the IRS as a nonprofit public charity in 2001. Through 2009, the Acumen Fund had invested more than $40 million in 40 enterprises serving the poor.

To college students and newly minted MBAs who wish to do meaningful work serving the world, she gives the advice to gain skills in marketing, design, distribution, finance, medicine, law, education, and engineering. She says they can make a difference by working for NGOs, progressive corporations, or governments. I believe Novogratz would also agree with recent advice from Barack Obama: "Better to jump in, get involved -- and it does mean that sometimes you'll get criticized and sometimes you'll fail and sometimes you'll be disappointed -- but you'll have a great adventure. And at the end of your life, hopefully you'll be able to look back and say, 'I made a difference.'" Novogratz followed this counsel long before it was given, for which she has sometimes been criticized and has sometimes been disappointed, but she has also most certainly made a difference.

I recommend The Blue Sweater for anyone with an interest in social entrepreneurship or Africa, anyone hoping to do something great, anyone looking for accountability in philanthropy, or anyone who has considered making a social investment (aka donation) to Acumen Fund.

6 International SME Financing Organizations

2009-02-25T20:39:00.015-07:00

It seems the whole world is familiar with microfinance these days, and that's a good thing in my book. A lesser known concept, however, is small and medium enterprise (SME) financing, which involves loans to businesses rather than to individuals. In the context of SME financing for the developing world, businesses that receive loans focus on creating jobs in the developing world and/or providing goods and services that benefit people in the developing world. Loan sizes are much larger than microfinance loans, but each loan has the potential of reaching hundreds or thousands of people rather than one individual or one small group of entrepreneurs.

Below are descriptions of 6 organizations involved in SME financing in the developing world, listed in alphabetical order. Passages in italics were taken verbatim from the organizations' web sites.

Aavishkaar is a venture fund founded to promote development in rural and semi-urban India. The firm provides micro-equity funding, approximately USD $20 thousand to USD $500 thousand and operational and strategic support to commercially viable companies increasing income in or providing goods and services to rural or semi-urban India.

Acumen Fund is a non-profit global venture fund that uses entrepreneurial approaches to solve the problems of global poverty. We seek to prove that small amounts of philanthropic capital, combined with large doses of business acumen, can build thriving enterprises that serve vast numbers of the poor. Our investments focus on delivering affordable, critical goods and services – like health, water, housing and energy – through innovative, market-oriented approaches. Acumen Fund has received recognition from major media outlets throughout the world, and their portfolio includes investments in India, Kenya, Pakistan, Tanzania, the United Kingdom, and the United States. They earned Fast Company's Social Capitalist Award and Charity Navigator's coveted 4-Star Rating.

Agora Partnerships fights poverty and inequality by unleashing the potential of developing world entrepreneurs to improve their communities. Agora Partnerships' mission is to give developing world entrepreneurs the management tools, networks and ﬁnancing needed to launch successful, socially-responsible companies. We work to ﬁnd great entrepreneurs and give them practical, hands-on help and the opportunity to obtain equity ﬁnancing from an investment fund specifically designed for them. We are mobilizing networks to encourage and support entrepreneurs on the front lines of development. Agora currently operates in Nicaragua. Agora founder Ben Powell is a Draper Richards Foundation Fellow.

E+Co makes clean energy investments in developing countries. With 15 years of experience and offices in 10 locations, E+Co's innovative business model provides lasting solutions to climate change and poverty. E+Co has offices in Bolivia, Brazil, China, Costa Rica, Ghana, South Africa, Tanzania, Thailand, The Netherlands and the United States.

The Grassroots Business Fund creates bottom-line solutions to poverty by helping grassroots organizations become catalysts for economic growth and social change. GBF delivers a unique blend of financing and technical assistance that helps our clients create scalable businesses, achieve sustainability, and attract socially-minded investors. Our for-profit investment fund, Grassroots Business Investors (GBI), provides grassroots organizations with access to capital that is tailored to meet their needs. Our non-profit capacity building arm, Grassroots Business Partners (GBP), works directly with grassroots organizations, providing grant-funded technical assistance to help them acquire the business discipline, knowledge and skills they need to scale up and succeed. GBF was established through the restructuring of IFC's Grassroots Business Initiative. The fund focuses primarily on Africa and South Asia.

Root Capital is a nonprofit social investment fund that is pioneering finance for grassroots businesses in the developing world. We work with artisan and farmer associations that build sustainable livelihoods and transform rural economies in poor, environmentally vulnerable places. Root Capital provides loans in 15 countries in Latin America, 10 countries in Africa, and 5 countries in Asia. The organization has received numerous accolades, including Fast Company's Social Capitalist Award and Charity Navigator's coveted 4-Star Rating.