Shifting Towards Harmony?
Shifting Towards Harmony?
I. There is
growing recognition around the world of the importance of social entrepreneurs.
Two of the past three Nobel Peace Prizes have been awarded to social entrepreneurs: Wangari Maathai, founder of the Green Belt Movement and Muhaamd Yunus and The Grameen Bank in 2006 for their innovations in micro-financing and "for their efforts to create economic and social development from below."
ll. Investment
patterns and business have begun to reflect this social shift.
The Omidyar Network, established by eBay’s founder Pierre Omidyar and his wife, Pam, has invested $90 million in businesses and non-profits in an effort to unleash people’s potential.
The Acumen Fund has raised more than $40 million to make investments in companies that extend access to clean water, health products, and affordable housing to people in underserved markets.
Ashokahas invested $145 million to identify and support “social entrepreneurs.”
The Skoll Foundation, established by Jeff Skoll, the first President of eBay also supports social entrepreneurs as well as investing in Participant productions, a film company that has produced mainstream film that build people’s awareness about the same issues that social entrepreneurs focus on: environmental health, human wellness, cross-cultural understanding, and a safe and healthy future for humankind.
Revolution Health, established by AOL founder Steve Case, works to put consumers at the center of the health system.
In just the past five years, more than $8 BILLION in venture capital has been invested in the United States alone in “clean technology” companies. That is the third largest category for venture investment in America!
Microfinance, once a category of economic theory embraced by academics and visionaries alone, is now being taken up by banking giants like Citigroup, while Prosper.com, Kiva.org, eloan.com, PRBC.com and dozens of other startups are expanding access to credit and connecting borrowers to lender in ways that would have seemed unimaginable just a few years ago. Today, THOUSANDS of microfinance organizations are assisting close to HALF A BILLION people (borrowers and their families) living on less than $1 a day.
UBS, the world’s largest wealth manager, in just the past three years, through its Philanthropy Services has organized twenty conferences in the Americas, Europe, and Asia to introduce “social entrepreneurship” to thousands of high net-worth clients so they can think more strategically about their wealth, their legacy, and their life.
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, is now the full time job of Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft and the world’s wealthiest man. Warren Buffet, the world’s second wealthiest man is starting to give away his $40 Billion fortune, most of it to the Bill Gates Foundation, which focuses primarily on global health.
lll. Companies
are celebrating core human-friendly values
More businesses are beginning to operate in socially responsible ways: Participant Productions (producers of Syriana, An Inconvenient Truth, and many others), Chipotle Mexican Grill, Terracycle, Inc., Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, First Solar, Whole Foods, and hundreds of other companies are dedicating themselves to building organizations responsible to their employees, their customers, the world, and their shareholders. Doing good and doing well are no longer disconnected goals.
Even those companies that have been historically part of the problem (such as General Electric and General Motors) have begun to pursue business opportunities that decrease environmental damage with the help of sustainability strategy firms, like GreenOrder. We hope and trust their intentions go beyond mere public relations.
lV. This is
more than a trend.
There is a sea change shift in human awareness and sense of what it means to be a human being. It is now clear that “your” future, “their” future and “our” future are one and the same subject. The number of grass roots groups dedicated to leveling the playing field economically and delivering services to the least among us has exploded in recent decades. Ashoka reports that in the United States the number of what they call, Citizens Groups has grown from 464,000 in 1989 to over one million in 2004. Even more impressive growth has been in Brazil where fewer than 5,000 groups have grown to over one million in less than two decades. This same pattern is seen throughout Asia and Eastern Europe. The number of International Citizen’s Groups has grown from 6,000 to nearly 53,000 in the past fifteen years. The growth in this sector is dwarfing the growth among other organizations in the United States, such as religious organizations. And of course, it follows that employment growth in this Citizens Group sector is outpacing employment growth in the overall economy in the United States.
This is not a trend. This is an
emerging Sacred Story. This Sacred Story is evidence of a significant societal
shift in human awareness. It is optimistic, idealistic, and dedicated to doing
something about what has been largely ignored by big business, government,
religion, and the media. It is a new generation – a Renaissance Generation that
insists on authenticity and is ready to act. The more effectively this story is
told, the broader its audience, the more rapid and significant our movement
towards social harmony can be.