Activity Description: TransFair USA's mission is to build a more equitable and sustainable model of international trade that benefits producers, consumers, industry and the earth. They achieve that mission by certifying and promoting Fair Trade products.

TransFair audits transactions between US companies offering Fair Trade Certified™ products and the international suppliers from whom they source, in order to guarantee that the farmers and farm workers behind Fair Trade Certified goods were paid a fair, above-market price. In addition, annual inspections conducted by FLO ensure that strict socioeconomic development criteria are being met using increased Fair Trade revenues.

Activity Description: Men on the Side of the Road (MSR) is giving thousands of unemployed men in South Africa the vital skills, tools, and social infrastructure to improve their lives. Extremely high unemployment rates in South Africa have forced men to stand on the side of the road, looking for temporary work and accepting low wages and abuse. MSR founder Charles Maisel saw the potential for these day laborers to recognize and utilize their own strength to create change from the bottom up.

Activity Description: In developing countries like Cambodia and Laos, low levels of education and poverty reinforce each other. Young adults are often forced to forgo education and take unskilled low-wage jobs. The situation is even more difficult when compounded by a physical disability, deceased or missing parents, or when young women are subjected to the horrors of the sex trade. Digital Divide Data is connecting the power of education and training programs with real job opportunities for disadvantaged individuals.

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With years of guiding experience, Eduardo Nycander and Kurt Holle created Rainforest Expeditions (RFE) in 1992. Located in the southeast of Peru in Madre de Dios, RFE educates tourists about conservation and sustainable development while providing job opportunities to the local community. The company runs four complementary ecolodges: the 18 room Tambopata Research Center (1992), the 30 room Posada Amazonas (1998), the 24 room Refugio Amazonas (2005) and the recently opened 18 room Konchukos Tambo, near Huascaran National Park north of Lima.

Among these lodges, Posada Amazonas is renowned for its unique partnership with the community of Infierno. RFE offers financing and experience, while the community provides labor and local knowledge of the natural environment. And while profits are split between the company and the community, ownership belongs to the latter.

The community-owned lodge is delivering great outcomes. Not only is it generating profit for RFE, but it is also placing the company in the limelight for potential clients and investors, creating a buzz around the fact that it fully engages a local community. For the Infierno community, it provides full ownership and a participatory process that allows it to pursue long term visions for sustainable development both within the community itself and the wider Amazonian region. In addition to its annual income of over US $250,000 and more than 30 permanent full time positions, Posada Amazonas has also led to the creation of four other small businesses in the community.

With over 50 employees, the recent addition of Refugio Amazonas, and the development of new products ranging from shorter 2-3 day general tours to an array of specialized tours (e.g. birding tours, academic tours), the company continues to attract new investments with plans to expand to other communities in the Andean region. RFE demonstrates how well-managed ecotourism can achieve environmental protection, social benefits, and economic growth.

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"Do it the right way (no short-cuts); Be innovative; Execute with discipline." - Vikram Akula, founder of SKS Microfinance

SKS Microfinance empowers the poor to become economically self-reliant by providing financial services in a sustainable manner. Vikram Akula, the 37-year-old founder of SKS Microfinance, who was featured in Time’s list of 100 ‘People Who Shape Our World’, believes corporatising the NGO sector is a must for meaningful poverty alleviation programmes. “A for-profit business model is the fastest way to put more money into more poor hands,” he says.

Launched in 1998, SKS Microfinance is one of the fastest growing microfinance organizations in the world, having provided over $ 92 million (Rs 425 crores) and has maintained loans outstanding of $38 million(170 crores) in loans to nearly 320,000 women clients in poor regions of India. Borrowers take loans for a range of income-generating activities, including livestock, agriculture, trade (such as vegetable vending), and production (from basket weaving to pottery). SKS also offers interest-free loans for emergencies as well as life insurance to borrowers. Its affiliate, SKS Education, provides education services to poor children, including running a government-funded school for girls who have dropped out of school.

SKS currently has 138 microfinance branches in the states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Orissa and Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, UP, Rajasthan, West Bengal, Jharkhand, and Chhattisgarh. This year, SKS aims to reach 700,000 clients by March 2007. In the last year alone, SKS Microfinance has achieved nearly 161 % growth, with 98% on-time repayment rate.

For this American-educated Fulbright scholar, a for-profit business model is not about maximising profits. It’s about maximising resources. “It allows you to tap private funds, unlike NGOs, where you survive on grants. You are accountable to your shareholders and, thus, cannot develop bad habits. You become more client responsive and allow them to guide your business,” says Akula, echoing the thoughts expressed by Infosys CEO Nandan Nilekani, the only other Indian on the Time’s powerlist.

Set up in 1998 with a sum of Rs 20 lakh that Akula managed to raise from 360 individual donors, most of them friends and family in the US where he was brought up, today SKS has a capital base of Rs 13.9 crore.

It has private equity participation from Silicon Valley entrepreneurs like Vinod Khosla, Ravi Reddy and Sandeep Tungare. Sidbi, a public financial institution, holds 7% for a crore invested. However, its client community remains its largest shareholders.

Apart from having a fully-automated, proprietory management information system (MIS), it has pioneered the use of smart-card technology at the village-level. The MFI is currently working with VISA International on a pilot project to develop and deploy wireless POS devices that would automate field operations and reduce transaction costs.

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Solar Cookers International assists communities to use the power of the sun to cook food and pasteurize water for the benefit of people and environments. The organization has built and maintains a network of nearly 1,000 independent promoters of solar cooking worldwide. Information is gathered and shared through two web sites, conferences, the Solar Cooker Review. Tens of thousands of people have learned how to make and use solar cookers for cooking, water pasteurizing and many business uses through SCI's publications. Other products include teaching curricula, training guides, a Water Pasteurization Indicator (WAPI) and various solar cookers.

Activity Description: Endeavor operates like a consulting firm for entrepreneurs in emerging economies. First, Endeavor scouts out business innovators in Latin America, which it thinks have the potential to create and manage successful enterprises. It then pairs these entrepreneurs with advisers, mentors, and investors who can help maximize a business's growth. The aim is to improve businesses so that they can create hundreds of jobs at a time, which will alleviate grinding poverty.