‘The Year of Fighting Over What Works’ was our headline prediction for 2011. So how did we do? Let’s take a look at the 10 scenarios we saw when we peered into our philanthrocrystal ball back in January. 1) “A battle is going to rage over the relationship between profit and philanthropy.” And some. Within […]
Our recent blog post criticising Muhammad Yunus for his blanket criticism of for-profit investment in microlending has sparked a lively debate, especially in the Twittersphere. The influential @socialedge called the post “must read”. @andrewsprung called it a “pitch-perfect rebuttal to Yunus”. On the other hand, @KimberleyCanada protested “Oh pls. some respect. the man is brilliant […]
It may not have been as terrifying as Francisco Goya’s depiction of Cronus devouring his children , but the article by microfinance pioneer Muhammad Yunus in today’s New York Times had disturbing echoes of the story from Greek mythology of the titan who, fearing that his offspring will overthrow him, eats them instead. “In the 1970s, when I began working here […]
The mere thought that the Grameen Bank might be taken over by the government of Bangladesh and that Muhammad Yunus, its Nobel Peace Prize-winning founder, might be forcibly retired, is shocking. But senior people inside the world’s best-known microfinance institution fear that this may happen, perhaps quite soon. Already, senior Grameen staff have had to […]
Two recent articles in the Wall Street Journal have taken shots at elements of philanthrocapitalism – the idea, endorsed by many of the most successful capitalists, that capitalism needs to make a more deliberate effort to improve society. Like Dickens’ Mr Scrooge, the writers’ response to the suggestion that firms and business leaders could do […]
“This is pushing microfinance in the loansharking direction,” said Muhammad Yunus, the Nobel peace prize-winning founder of Grameen Bank, in response to today’s news that SKS, an Indian microfinance institution, has gone public. ”It’s not mission drift. It’s endangering the whole mission.” We respectfully disagree. The keenly anticipated initial public offering, which aimed to raise […]
“In Philanthrocapitalism, Matthew Bishop and Michael Green show the remarkable extent to which private wealth can advance public good by applying entrepreneurial skills, speed, and score-keeping to our most persistent challenges,” writes former President Bill Clinton in the foreword to the new paperback edition of Philanthrocaptalism. We are honoured, and grateful to him. In the […]
Ten percent of all government aid should go to promoting social businesses, argued microfinance pioneer and Nobel Prize winner Muhammad Yunus at yesterday’s panel on innovation at the Clinton Global Initiative meeting in New York. This echoed our call for new, innovative ways to deliver aid based on partnerships between government and the private sector. Professor Yunus’s model […]
Matthew’s probing of Muhammad Yunus’s position on the role of profit in scaling up micro-finance at the World Business Forum seems to have irritated Felix Salmon, who blogs for Portfolio magazine in a post Philanthropy vs Profit. Felix puts forward two arguments: that for-profit microfinance has failed to help the poor, citing the example of […]
[Matthew interviewed Nobel prizewinner Muhammad Yunus at the World Business Forum, held in New York’s spectacular Radio City Music Hall.] Yunus has done incredible things for the poor since he started the micro-finance movement with his Grameen Bank in Bangladesh back in the 1970s. But the philanthrocapitalism revolution has created a schism in the microfinance […]