Featured Blog Posts – October 2008 Archive (20)

Marketing Community Investment like Tina Fey

Corporate Social Responsibility walks hand in hand with the New Social Media

Almost everyone I know has seen the now famous Sarah Palin impersonation by Tina Fey. SNL racked up 10.2 million viewers for their…

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Added by Chris Jarvis on October 28, 2008 at 17:07 — No Comments

Ethical Investment is the Key

It is a truth that giving has failed Africa. Focusing on Malawi, official development assistance and official aid have steadily been on the increase since the 1980s reaching a peak in 2006 of US$650 Million. Despite this inflow of aid, Malawi’s Gross National Income (GNI) per capita has remained fairly static being US$190 in 1980 falling to US$140 in 2001 and currently at a record high of US$250.

Whilst aid has continued to pour into Malawi seeing little success, the inflow of… Continue

Added by Peter Lander on October 27, 2008 at 18:13 — No Comments

BFP Team Ending World Poverty Through Social Business

Muhammad Yunus is a man with a mission: consigning world poverty to history. In his book, Creating a World Without Poverty, Yunus sets out his strategy for making his ambitious dream a reality. As the founder of the Grameen Bank, Yunus has been a pioneer in thinking about how to harness business thinking to fight poverty. As he puts it, "It will require all our creativity and imagination to come up with excellent business ideas that… Continue

Added by Zahid Torres-Rahman on October 27, 2008 at 1:30 — 4 Comments

Pathological Collaboration at SoCAP '08

I posted a blog entry on NextBillion.net as well as my own blog on my thoughts of the Social Capital Markets conference that occurred a few weeks ago in San Francisco. I met a fellow BFP member there, Alexis Sampson.

You can find the discussion here: Pathological Collaboration. Comments appreciated.

Mark… Continue

Added by Mark Beckford on October 27, 2008 at 0:48 — No Comments

Corporate Social Responsibility May be the Solution in Failing Economy

The credit markets are tightening their belts (or bottlenecks) and chances are many business leaders are looking to trim the fat off the edges. Next year’s budgets will reflect the fiscal judiciousness of the obsessive profiteer. Nothing wrong with that, really. It’s why business is in business - to make money for the owners/shareholders. And that is exactly why CSR should be… Continue

Added by Chris Jarvis on October 26, 2008 at 23:30 — No Comments

BFP Team Let's welcome the new African free trade zone!

In a BBC article it was estimated that the new African free trade zone of 26 countries has a combined GDP of $624bn (£382.9bn).

The coming together of these countries should also help them cope better with the adverse effects of the international economic climate.

This agreement between the leaders of the existing African trading blocks, namely the Southern African… Continue

Added by Yvette Torres-Rahman on October 25, 2008 at 12:35 — No Comments

Wasting Public money

I want to put this into UK context but it does indicate just how little thought has been put into the whole Voluntary Sector developmen tprogramme nationally and internationally.

Because of the Lisbon Treaty the UK is committed to creating a more tailored skills market this basically means that any options chosen to throw some funds at an idea that appears sound by a national body will recieve funding.

The only way to make this work is to create an international skills… Continue

Added by Mark Trotter on October 23, 2008 at 11:28 — No Comments

The practice of giving back - Business

The following article by Jiayan Huang from The Ticker is an excellent example of the current trends in Corporate Social Responsibility. It highlights the importance of volunteerism through the employer as a benefit that displaces 'salary as king'.…

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Added by Chris Jarvis on October 20, 2008 at 21:27 — No Comments

2nd anniversary of greatest end poverty collaboration branding

The Nobel award2006 to Muhammad Yunus has had extraordinary impacts on all of: 1) Yunus

2) 7 million poor women who shared half of the nobel prize

3) the nobel brand

4) the world of people who want microeconomics up not wall street down to spin our global generation

Not in living memory has an award gone to an entrepreneur at the top of his game -in this case freeing the market of end poverty so everyone can joyously unite.… Continue

Added by chris macrae on October 18, 2008 at 20:30 — No Comments

World Poverty Day, 17 October

Today, the world is marking the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty. 3 billion people still live on less that US$2 a day.

Here are some useful sites:

International Day for the Eradication of Poverty Press Release

The rights of people living in poverty will be… Continue

Added by Business Fights Poverty on October 17, 2008 at 12:00 — No Comments

Financial Chaos on Wall Street May Make Corporations Socially Irresponsible

Amid chaos in the financial sectors, the trillion dollar bailouts, and the cannibalizing of historic financial institutions around the world, there is a small stage being set. It is being meticulously prepared by the stage hands of fear, loss, anxiety and turmoil. Upon this stage, a troupe of thespians will play out for us, an audience of nations, their rendition of our true… Continue

Added by Chris Jarvis on October 16, 2008 at 0:42 — 1 Comment

BFP Team Scaling-up Action to Fight Poverty

When I first started working with Inspiris in the field of business fighting poverty, I did some pro-bono marketing work for a great consumer brand called Heart of Africa. All profits made from the brand are re-invested in business development projects in Africa. The organisation behind it is Traidlinks whose vision is to "diminish poverty in developing countries by… Continue

Added by Yvette Torres-Rahman on October 15, 2008 at 23:30 — No Comments

Fighting poverty by empowering women

It is widely recognised in the development community that it is women who suffer most the burden of poverty, and that it is women who offer the best route out poverty.

Grameen, perhaps the best-known advocate and pioneer, uses micro loans, financial services and technology, to help the poor, mostly women, to start self-sustaining businesses to… Continue

Added by Business Fights Poverty on October 15, 2008 at 22:00 — 1 Comment

BFP Team Making a difference in the fight against poverty

For all of us committed to fighting world poverty, the sheer scale of it can be overwhelming. For me, perhaps the most inspiring story I have heard comes from “The Star Thrower” by Loren Eiseley. The powerful message of the book is a simple one: every action, no matter how small, can make a difference. The story is summarised by the Starfish Project, a great… Continue

Added by Zahid Torres-Rahman on October 15, 2008 at 21:30 — No Comments

Housing poverty

When we consider poverty it is easy to forget housing poverty for the majority of people world wide.

This is the issue that I would like to thin about today. If anyone understands the scheme run by habitat for humanity in this area of development I will be grateful to hear from you

This is a slum in Mbuya, a very rich and affluent surburb of Kampala Uganda

More information about my work please visit… Continue

Added by Ida Horner on October 15, 2008 at 20:01 — No Comments

Strength in depth and diversity

I have met so many people who can tell me what is wrong with the world. Plus those who quote the words of one of mankinds great leaders that the poor are always with us, but why are so few able to offer the simple commodity that we all have in support of others. - ourselves.

Everyday it should be our aim to do at least one thing that will benefit others, that can be just sharing a moment of comfort and support, It could also be getting involved in a thorny problem and offering a… Continue

Added by Mark Trotter on October 15, 2008 at 8:53 — No Comments

The Key to Great Corporate Volunteering

Every once in awhile you come across fantastic examples of great Corporate Volunteering programs. They’re great because they manage to achieve strategic alignment between the company’s CSR approach and the company’s brand. They’re great because they can boast high levels of participation from enthusiastic employees, as well as a real sense of camaraderie across all levels of the company. And most importantly, they’re great because they have figured out how to retain - even increase - employee… Continue

Added by Chris Jarvis on October 14, 2008 at 1:44 — No Comments

Blog Action Day 2008 Poverty - 15 October

Blog Action Day 2008 Poverty from Blog Action Day on Vimeo.

Blog Action Day - 15 October 2008 - is an annual nonprofit event that aims to unite the world’s bloggers, podcasters and videocasters, to post about the same issue on the… Continue

Added by Business Fights Poverty on October 9, 2008 at 22:00 — 1 Comment

Businesses Struggle to Deliver What Gen Y Wants

I recently came across the following article concerning the hiring of Millennials, or Generation Y. It is one of an increasing number of write-ups underscoring the recruiting imperative facing businesses hoping to attract the best and brightest Millennials to their ranks. If you are in the process of recruiting this… Continue

Added by Chris Jarvis on October 9, 2008 at 3:30 — No Comments

Strategies and Tools for Corporate Engagement in Community Economic Development

For many corporate leaders, it is not a question of whether to engage in corporate social responsibility (CSR), but rather how to do this in the most effective way a way that not only maximizes corporate value, but also social value. This article draws lessons from corporate engagement to advance community economic development (CED), examining innovative corporate engagement strategies, and ways in which social impact can be captured, communicated, and enhanced.…

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Added by Karim Harji on October 9, 2008 at 2:25 — No Comments