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June 09, 2008

Growing Number of Groups Use Business Approaches to Help the World's Poor

A group of social-entrepreneurship organizations such as the Acumen Fund, Ashoka, and Endeavor, are looking to erase the distinction between business and charity, reports the Financial Times.

Those groups give loans to people from poor countries to start their own businesses, help them market their wares, and assist them in developing sustainable business models. Because the groups are not established as for-profit companies, they are not subject to banking laws and can experiment more, the newspaper says.

Bill Drayton, founder of Ashoka, believes that the difference between the nonprofit and business worlds will soon disappear. He says, “Entrepreneurs disrespect boundaries — they don’t care if it’s business or social. With every human need, you have a business system serving the need and a social system serving the need and for centuries they haven’t talked to each other — that’s all changed.”

Monday June 9, 2008 | Permalink

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