According to the Ashoka.org website, innovative founder, Bill Drayton “named, created and pioneered the global field of social entrepreneurship” when he founded this world-changing organization in 1980. With a string of Ivy League credits including a Yale University Law degree, Drayton might be expected to end up on Wall Street. Yet early in his career Drayton’s social conscience resulted in the creation of this remarkable organization that uses economic initiatives for the common good. Ashoka in its twenty eight year history has grown from a $50,000 budget to $30,000,000 annually. The 501c3 organization invests in three-year stipends for social entrepreneurs with innovative solutions that address social issues. Ashoka in its own words: “Ashoka envisions a world where Everyone is a Changemaker: a world that responds quickly and effectively to social challenges, and where each individual has the freedom, confidence and societal support to address any social problem and drive change. Ashoka strives to shape a global, entrepreneurial, competitive citizen sector: one that allows social entrepreneurs to thrive and enables the world’s citizens to think and act as changemakers.”

Yunus admired the work of microcredit pioneer, Dr. Akhtar Hameed Khan, founder of Pakistan Academy for Rural Development. With $27, Yunus made forty two loans to impoverished villagers in his native Bangladesh. When all 42 villagers repaid him, he realized the poor needed a non-traditional lending institution. From 1976, Yunus used monies from a Bangladesh government loan to lend to 28,000 local villagers. In 1983, Grameen Bank became a fully regulated banking institution and the microfinance revolution was born. Grameen’s mission is to give a hand to the poor, especially the poorest, to escape the wretched reality of poverty. To date, Grameen Bank has loaned over six and a half billion dollars to more than seven million borrowers. Yunus has also initiated a special fund for beggars who would never normally be eligible for any bank loan. The loan program for beggars offers them the opportunity to break the cycle of inescapable poverty by loaning small amounts of money to sell merchandise rather than beg for change. Of the 85,000 beggars in the program, already 5,000 have been able to stop begging completely. In 2006, Yunus and Grameen Bank won the Nobel Peace Prize for the initiative. In his Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech, Yunus spoke of a new “non-loss, non-dividend” business initiative called “social business.” Similar to social entrepreneurship by tackling social issues as business problems, Yunus’ social business could expand even further by creating its own capital market to raise its own capital. He called for a full-fledged social stock-exchange with new ratings agencies, standards of conduct and measurement and even a “Social Wall Street Journal.” To date, a social stock market has not been created. However, the work of Yunus and Grameen Bank after the 2006 Nobel Prize was awarded was like an economic shock heard around the world. The social business concept was referenced by Bill Gates at the 2007 World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland as “creative capitalism.” Other innovators around the globe are working on projects called “Base of the Pyramid Enterprise.” Dozens of microfinance initiatives have sprung up since the work of Grameen Bank was announced to the world. Whatever you wish to call it, a social economic revolution has begun.

Its stated mission is to “connect people through lending for the sake of alleviating poverty.” Kiva’s simple to use web site allows a microfinance investor to lend an entrepreneur anywhere in the world as little as $25 for their enterprise. An investor searches the Kiva.org site to review photos, real-life stories and financing requests from thousands of borrowers. A married woman with two children in Ghana sells tribal food specialties in Western Ghana. In Guatemala, a group of women entrepreneurs sell embroidered clothing. Borrowers are men and women entrepreneurs from Asia, the Middle East, Africa, South and Central America who have business initiatives needing financial support. Investors are paid back in a specific time period and can reinvest in other initiatives or take their money back. The default rate for 7, 587, 935 Kiva loans made since its inception in 2005 is 0.3%. Kiva does not take a loan fee. Its overhead is supported solely by donations and corporate sponsors.