A NEW WAY FOR CORPORATES TO BE SOCIALLY RESPONSIBLE

Today, the clarion call for corporate accountability towards the destruction of the environment, exploitation of cheap labour and their contribution towards climate change is unanimous. However, few or any governments dare take notice. The drive for short-term profits today seems to trump the human rights of millions of people on the planet. Avenues for citizens to seek recourse or hold these corporations to account for their behaviour are non-existent. Instead, what happens is that corporations, through trade and investment deals, demand that governments do their bidding.

A Kinder Form of Capitalism 

The Goat Foundation endeavours in philanthropy bear witness to the practical demonstration of Cause Capitalism

Cause Capitalism considers these moral atrocities from an insider’s perspective. Consider the likely overarching effect to be arrived at if worldwide corporations pledge a percentage of their gross income for humanitarian purposes. The Founder of the Cause Capitalism philosophy, Mr Steve Down, must have pondered these scenarios when he patented its framework principle.

Cause Capitalism redefined the purely for-profit motive of businesses to one that designated a new type of corporate focus in which a pledged quota of their annual revenue went to non-profit organisations working towards humanitarian causes.

Evidence-Based Interventions

Clearly, on a global scale, we need innovative, evidence-based solutions proven to help people escape extreme poverty. To be effective, we need interventions that suit local circumstances and offer livelihood training, cash tokens, and the donation of productive assets to needy families. Recipient communities are then encouraged to save money and receive training on wealth management by community officers.

Currently, in Africa and Asia, greater focus is being given to households where women are usually the primary recipients of Aid programs. These interventions follow four pillars: social protection, livelihood promotion, financial inclusion, and social empowerment.

Companies founded by Mr Steve Down are blazing the trail in Africa and the US to provide services that centre around these four pillars. The Goat Foundation is a pioneering venture of targeted humanitarian Aid work, where it donates a pair of goats to Widows and Orphans in Rural Kenya. So far, there is evidence of social empowerment and social protection due to the economic clout resulting from the donations by The Goat Foundation.

Evidence-based solutions such as the donation of two goats to widows provide sustainable solutions to poverty eradication.

Mr Down and his team empowers communities worldwide through an innovative Learning Management System that offers financial literacy classes on principle centered wealth for only $10. The undertaking supports the pillar of financial inclusion because empirical evidence has proven that financial illiteracy results in poor savings, poor spending, excessive credit card use, and bad investment decisions.

We are on the cusp of something big and transformative here. Societies all over are bound to benefit in ways untold if companies today chose to spend less on PR campaigns and instead channel their efforts toward Cause Capitalism. Needless to add, this would benefit these corporations too in terms of earning a good PR, a positive public image and a lot of goodwill.