Muhammad Yunus started a movement that has lifted millions out of poverty. When he formed the Grameen Bank in 1983 and started giving out microloans, Yunus bridged the divide between business and social needs. In this audio lecture, he describes how he created microcredit, collateral-free lending, and began offering other business services to the poor. Yunus lays out the path to his extraordinary vision and success, which is driving global social change.
The beginnings of the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC) were fraught with uncertainty. Initially surviving entirely on donations, it has since earned back two pennies for every one it has spent on welfare activities, and is today the largest, self-reliant international NGO, employing more than 97,000 people. In this audio lecture, Fazle Hasan Abed reminisces about the organization's humble beginnings and shares the organization's achievements.
Professor Muhammad Yunus, 2006 Nobel Peace Prize winner and founder of Grameen Bank, changes traditional principles of banking by putting poor people's needs first. Today, Grameen Bank is a powerful organization that supports poor people by providing microloans, credits, and banking services. In this audio lecture, Yunus describes the reasons behind his philosophies and how they have led to the launch of new enterprises in various industries in Bangladesh.
The traditional approach among human rights groups in Nigeria had been accusatory: publicize injustices or sue the government. But in January 1998, on the eve of democracy, an NGO called the CLEEN foundation set out to reform law enforcement from within.
Environmental sustainability is an area ripe for social entrepreneurship. In this panel discussion at Stanford, industry experts discuss the challenges and opportunities for enterprising business minds in the area of climate change. They consider how new economies like China and India are tackling the problem, and whether entrepreneurs should lead with "impact" or "profitability" in pitching solution-oriented ideas to investors.
Social entrepreneurship is attracting growing amounts of talent, money, and attention, but along with its increasing popularity has come less certainty about what exactly a social entrepreneur is and does.
Social entrepreneurship and social enterprise have become popular and positive rallying points for those trying to improve the world, but social innovation is a better vehicle for understanding and creating social change in all of its manifestations.
A veteran social entrepreneur provides a guide to those who are thinking through the thorny question of whether to create a nonprofit, a for-profit, or something in between.
Two veterans of consumer psychology, marketing, and entrepreneurship provide a guide to using social media for social change.
A few nonprofits are using social media to fundamentally change the way they work and increase their social impact.
