How can we magnify our impact? Investing in companies that are measurably helping to solve global issues wins you not just brownie points, but financial returns too. (Impact Investing is hot right now.)
It is also the intentional marriage of profit and values. Taking something out of our "investment portfolios" that are not aligned with our values. While we can talk about literal investment portfolios, it is important to consider our daily investments - things like patronizing locally owned supplied and sourced companies to keep your dollars in your local community. Another way is to be aware of organizations committed to impact investing - companies, organizations, and funds with the intention of generating financial returns AND measurable social and environmental impact.
Muhammad Yunus would like poverty to only exist in museums. Is that possible?
"I thought that if I were to lend money to the poor, than the villagers could be free from the grasp of the loan sharks. This is what I did. I never imagined that it would become my calling in life." ~Yunis
"Poverty is not created by the poor people. It is imposed on the poor people by the system that we created. Sometimes I give the analogy of a bonsai tree. You take the seed of the tallest tree in the forest and you put it a flower pot: only a small, one meter high tree will grow. We call it bonsai. It looks very cute. But it doesn't grow tall. What is the problem? We didn't give it enough soil to grow.
Poor people are bonsai people. There is nothing wrong with the seed. Society simply never gave them the space so that they can grow as tall as anybody else. A lack of money equates to a lack of space.
We need to give poor people access to technology, education, training, finances, health care, in return for a payment. We are not talking about giving them everything free. We don't give them a free loan. They have to pay it back. But in the meantime, they are changing their lives. Everything else can be done in that way. That's social business. Once we do that, there should be no reason why people should be poor."
It's happening. We will reduce poverty by half by 2015 and concrete results are emerging. It could be much easier; technology is making it easier. I not only think that we should put poverty in a museum. By 2030 and beyond, we should be thinking about creating a society without unemployment too. Why should anybody be unemployed? There is nothing wrong with the person! We created a faulty system, and that reflects on us. We are being punished for designing a faulty system.
We are educated people. We should be creating things to enjoy for everybody so that creative power is not locked up in an unemployed person."
Banishing poverty to a museum is a lofty goal. Yunus' vision is admirable and has made measurable impact in the world. The component of what he is suggesting is combating the "natural man" and the complications of mental illness and substance abuse. Combining the impact of social investing impact to include the vast array of why people live in poverty is important.
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