Innovative Ways of Fighting Global Poverty

[Adite Banerjie]

CSR is a much-debated topic. While most CSR activities have mostly remained at the level of generating good PR for the corporates, here is an example of American Express' attempts at funding innovative programs that seek to benefit a constituency other than that of the company's core client base.

The Members Project of American Express invited social entrepreneurs to submit their innovative projects. Based on votes of American Express card holders [as well as non-card holders]the deserving projects will be sponsored/funded by American Express.

One of the projects that was placed among the finalists, Loans that Change Lives, seeks to combine micro-finance with technology. In the project-creator's words:

"Loans that Change Lives is an internet based platform that allows everyday people to become “social investors”. Imagine – with $25, a credit card, and an internet connection, anybody in the world can invest in the life of a deserving entrepreneur. The site allows for lenders to sort pre-screened businesses by region, culture, or business category; and see a photo / profile of the person they are supporting. With $1.5M, we hope to expand our selection of businesses to fund.

With over a billion people living on under $2 a day, this project aims to fight global poverty. During the era of P2P connectivity, this initiative provides a convenient way for lenders to do philanthropic good on the internet; and the best part is that they get to see their impact through repayments and journal updates.

By empowering the working poor, this approach to fight poverty allows for families to have a sustainable livelihood. In some cases, traditional donations are a short term fix. Microloans really allow for families (women, men, and children) to prosper, and businesses to flourish generation after generation."

[Adite Banerjie]

That's cool, Anders! Sharing your learnings from the Ignition experience and other experiments could help give a new direction to CSR practices.
Adite

[Anders Abrahamsson]

I think this is massive! This was actually the "Aha" insight and innovative flash that fired the whole intense action route in Jan 5, 2000 - an idea to join the powers of Internet and micro-loans to fight global poverty. Immense to see it come this way, as well as also www.kiva.org and also Ebay I think have an arm of this basic idea with fusion of Internet+International Money Transfer Options+Microloans combo! My story on this original "Ignition" by the turn of the millennium will be told in the first part of my book to come, the "Chronicle" part. Blogged away and syndicated here on the Café as well :) !

Thanks for sharing, Adite!

Peace,
Anders