Made in a Free World

How many slaves work for you? You can find out here.

Slavery Footprint's app, developed with the support of the US State Department, helps individuals to understand their connection to modern slavery. Their motto is: Free Market to Free People.

And now, Made in a Free World is helping businesses to eliminate slavery from their supply chain. Why should companies pay attention? Here's the reasons they give:

 

In my view, transparency and accountability will increase in the coming years, not decrease, with growing environmental concerns and public awareness of human rights violations. Companies might as well get started.

image via  Made in a Free World

The Market Matters

Last year, a product called the GiraDora was introduced: a foot powered washing machine developed specifically for populations in Peru to save them time and money.

This simple machine, as you'd imagine, could be useful in any number of developing countries, and could potentially change the lives of millions of people by saving them up to six hours of laundry time in a given day (plus the physical labor needed to do the task). Its makers have won awards from from Dwell, Core77, Dell Social Innovation Challenge, and the International Design Excellence Awards.

But innovations like these have another benefit to their makers: profit. And that's good. Just as the market will drive what product or service is most wanted or needed, it will reward the innovator and businessperson who brought it to market. The market will also reward attention to bottom line. There's no room for waste or inefficiency, and the best workers should be rewarded for their talents and hard work. It's time to treat social business like any other business.

picture via Fast CoDesign

We See Beauty

This spring, a friend tipped me off to We See Beauty, a curated for-benefit shop of socially & aesthetically-minded products that support cooperatives.

This marketplace of ideas, stories and products is based in Brooklyn and built with the goal of empowering local economies and strengthening communities. Its online shop sells a selection of products across wellness, design, film, print, and more, each one socially- and aesthetically-minded.

1/3 of all website sales benefit the We See Beauty Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to incubate and accelerate women-led, worker-owned cooperatives to drive large scale change and beginning with a $1M endowment. First project: a co-op in Brooklyn that will create and sell its own healthy cleaning and personal care products.

My first experience with a successful co-op business was the Cheese Board in Berkeley, CA. Every day, at lunch and dinner, they make one kind of thin-crust vegetarian gourmet foodie pizza, sold for just a few bucks. Every day, the line is out the door, and they've been doing it for over 40 years.

The charity space is long overdue for a new model. I'll be curious to track We See Beauty and see how they fare.

photo via weseebeauty

Fake It 'til You Make It

Decades in the making, and I can't wait. Being gluten-free makes it even more appealing, although at some point one does begin to wonder what's actually holding it together.

Reasons why? Good health, climate and resource preservation, and animal rights.
 
Click here for a press release on Beyond Meat™, which launched the first meat-free and gluten-free chicken strips.

One consumer's comparison of the different meatless brands is here.

Enjoy!

image via beyondmeat.com

Lowering Infant Mortality with Cardboard-Box Cribs

A recent article from CNN described a Finnish program where new moms are entitled to a cardboard box full of baby supplies when they give birth. This means that not only do they have a starter-kit of useful clothing and accessories, but the box bottom is lined with a mattress, allowing it to become a simple crib. Babies of all social strata all over Finland have started their lives in the same cardboard box, an unusual but powerful equalizer.

 And their numbers are proving that the program works.

Besides the box, other reasons for the drop in mortality rate since the 1940's have been credited to pre-natal care for all women, followed by a national health insurance system and central hospital network. With all of the demands and stresses placed on moms, it's nice for these ones to know they have support. Perhaps this can serve as a model, just one small example of a successful program, as our own country addresses its badly-broken system. 

In Finland, they know that good things come in small packages--and also in slightly larger ones. 

Facts & images courtesy of CNN.com

Changing the World Isn't Cheap--Nor Should You Expect It To Be

The purpose of a nonprofit service organization is to better the world, to ignite social change or serve people who are left or disempowered. And yet, we hold these organizations to inexplicably high standards of frugality and bottom-line spending, making things like compensation and marketing budgets moral issues instead of rewarding big goals and success in achieving them. In short, we're missing the point, and it's hurting progress.

Dan Pallotta's eloquent TED talk will change the way you think about nonprofit organizations, for-profit companies, and our potential to change the world.



P.s. I recently wrote a piece for Sheryl Sandberg's Lean In site, in which I describe my take on nonprofit career paths: Among many misconceptions about a career in nonprofits is that it caters to people who are lazy or unqualified for corporate jobs. I approach my job seriously, applying the same rigor that I would to a corporate position.

As social businesses and conscious capitalism become more mainstream, our thinking about these types of careers will adjust as well, and instead of an either/or situation, we will be able to decide what kind of change we want to make in the world.