NextBillion.net - Development Through Enterprise - Why the Base of the Pyramid Movement Needs God - Comments

BAM

Moses Lee — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 22:17:45 -0400

Lance,

I'm familiar to the BAM movement and have actually read a few books on this subject. One such book is called Great Commission Companies. Thanks for the reference.

response to j

Moses Lee — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 22:15:40 -0400

j,

i really appreciate your thoughts on your blog and think you bring up a lot of good points. again, i think it would be worthwhile to highlight a few case studies on FBOs on the ground which are successfully helping poor communities and bringing forth positive development.

one other thing that i'd like to to do is compare the motives between secular NGOs and FBOs for doing "good work." i think within this comparison you will also see an inherent competitive advantage of FBOs.

Christians are beginning...

lance durham — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 14:33:58 -0400

Christians are beginning to talk about running businesses in emerging markets; this is usually called the 'Business As Mission' (BAM) movement. the common reasons given are (1) to bless the local people with employment to raise their standard of living and (2) to witness Christ to the employees, employee families, the vendors, the customers, the government, local businesspeople, etc. the best book i know of on this subject is 'God is at Work' by ken eldred.

Will Comment

Moses Lee — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 23:30:50 -0400

J, thanks for the reflection and will try to comment on your post soon. Appreciate the feedback!

FBOs

Moses Lee — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 23:29:29 -0400

Thanks Elijah, perhaps I will profile some FBOs in another post which are adopting market based solutions to poverty alleviation. Appreciate your feedback from your personal experience! (If there are any people from FBOs reading this post, would love to hear from you.)

Moses - Thanks for bringing

Fri, 13 Jun 2008 14:35:58 -0400

Moses - Thanks for bringing up this subject again, very helpful. I didn't want to violate the "post length>comment length" dictum so I posted some reflections at my blog. Would love to hear more from you on this topic.

Faith Based Organisations

Elijah Omagor — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 10:39:58 -0400

Moses, this is a good article with a lot of insight. From my personal experience, I have noticed that in countries like Uganda where the vice of corruption is growing by the day, FBOs have the advantage of always channelling the funds for the right purposes. Ofcourse, some people have used this opportunity to form FBOs for the purposes of fleecing unsuspecting donors, however, the truth of the matter is that FBOs like World Vision, Conmpassion International, etc have had a much bigger positive impact in society because they are often not compromised by vices like corruption that usually affect many rganisations. Their strong point might just be that they still have a conscience.

Why the Base of the Pyramid Movement Needs God

Moses Lee — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 14:55:43 -0400

In my previous post, I suggested that BoP enterprises should consider partnering with faith based organizations (FBOs) on the ground, particularly in countries where religion plays a large role. In this post, I’d like to put forth another distinct, but similar idea: FBOs in the West can play a large part in the overall BoP Movement. Crazy, right? Maybe not.

A recent article in the Stanford Social Innovation Review highlighted the results of a survey on charitable giving in the United States. The survey showed that there is a gap between donor intent and actual giving. 47% of the respondents to the survey stated that they gave money in order to assist the needy. However, in actual giving, only 6% of donor dollars was given to organizations that primarily seek to meet the basic needs of people in the United States. Internationally, only 2% of donor dollars was allocated to assisting of those in need. So where is all the money going? Answer: FBOs.

Time to sound the alarm, right? “Wake up, donors! Smell the coffee. Start channeling your money elsewhere.” This is probably the reaction most on this blog would have.

(This post continues past the break; click "Read More" to continue)