Think Bigg

Most of you know that I like nothing better than a good excuse to indulge in high fashion.  My latest find is a company called Shabby Apple.

Dubbing themselves “Couture with a Conscience,” Shabby Apple is partnering with Unitus to give 5% of its net profits to microfinance projects.

According to their website,

For many women in the developing world, life is a constant struggle against poverty and hardship. Limited economic opportunity leads to a downward cycle of malnutrition, illiteracy and poor health - a cycle that traps each new generation. Through access to microfinance - financial services such as microcredit loans, insurance, savings and other products - women can overcome poverty and provide a better life for their children.

Every $100 donation provides at least 20 women with access to financial services - and the chance to live a life without poverty. Plus the dresses are super cute!

This flirty black satin holiday dress, “Sabrina,” is one of my favorites at just $98.

In addition to the dresses, Shabby Apple also carries a line of accessories, and you can expect to see Shabby Baby in February!

Now go do some guilt-free shopping!

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While there has been some recent criticism of its much touted potential to eliminate global poverty, there is no doubt that microfinance has empowered millions of impoverished people around the world by providing them access to the financial tools that traditional banks won’t offer.

To that end, the folks at Unitus are doing their part to fight global poverty by using a venture capital model to increase access to microfinance around the globe.

According to their website,

Unitus envisions a world where microfinance is available to every individual. We work toward this vision by accelerating the growth of the world’s highest-potential emerging microfinance institutions. We provide capital investments and capacity-building consulting, thus empowering these organizations to scale and provide life-changing financial services to dramatically more of the world’s working poor.

How can you help? Of course, you can always donate directly to Unitus.

Or every time you shop at Amazon.com, click through the Unitus website, and Unitus will receive a contribution for all the purchases you make within the following 24 hours at no additional cost to you! How easy is that?

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Three years ago, University of Michigan strategy guru C.K. Prahalad proposed that multinational corporations could alleviate global poverty while boosting their bottom lines in his best-selling book, The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid.

In an interview for Fast Company’s March issue, Prahalad gives an example:

FC: Can the poor–or even the “underserved”–really be a growth engine for companies?

Prahalad: Look at wireless. In India, wireless-communication companies are adding 5 million new subscribers per month. They expect, by 2010, to have 400 million subscribers connected wirelessly. If you’re Nokia, or Motorola, or Ericsson, and you don’t participate in that market, 50% of your future business is gone.

Though Prahalad’s critics have charged that the bottom of the pyramid (BOP) is smaller and less lucrative than Prahalad has claimed, a recent report by the IFC (the private sector arm of the World Bank Group) called “The Next 4 Billion” seems to back him up.

According to the World Resources Institute,

New empirical measures of their aggregate purchasing power and behavior as consumers suggest significant opportunities for market-based approaches to better meet their needs, increase their productivity and incomes, and empower their entry into the formal economy.

Drawing on income data from 110 countries and standardized expenditure data from 36 countries across the globe, The Next 4 Billion is an important first look at the market opportunity represented by four billion individuals who make up the BOP.

The sooner the developed world can bring the developing world into the club, the sooner they are regarded as an equally worthy recipient of all the necessities and all the luxuries the world has to offer, the sooner global poverty will become a hazy relic of the past.

Certainly charity has its place in the alleviation of global suffering. But long-term, finding ways to bring these people, these countries into the world marketplace will ensure that charity is no longer necessary.

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Anyone who knows me will appreciate the depth of my jealousy for Sophie and Stan’s Adventures in India.

Sophie and Stan are friends of a friend, regular Silicon Valley types, that have decided to take a four month sabbatical from their everyday lives to see firsthand the impact of the microfinance revolution:

Until our visit to India, we have been believers in the effectiveness of Microfinance, but have never had the chance to see it in practice. Meeting the borrowers in person has made it a more believable and powerful poverty alleviation solution. Hearing women entrepreneurs speak about their businesses, seeing their faces as they accept a loan disbursement or make a payment, and observing the camaraderie and empowerment of the women borrower groups has been an eye-opening experience.

To learn more about the ins and outs of microfinance in India, read the couple’s travel blog.

And to get involved personally with microfinance, check out the opportunities at Kiva and give an entrepreneur in the developing world a chance to grow their business!

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Congratulations to Nobel Peace Prize winner, Muhammad Yunus for his pioneering work to bring microfinance to the working poor of Bangladesh.

Time Magazine reports:

Bangladeshi economist Muhammad Yunus and the Grameen Bank he founded won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for their pioneering use of tiny, seemingly insignificant loans — microcredit — to lift millions out of poverty.

Through Yunus’s efforts and those of the bank he founded, poor people around the world, especially women, have been able to buy cows, a few chickens or the cell phone they desperately needed to get ahead.

“Lasting peace cannot be achieved unless large population groups find ways in which to break out of poverty,” the Nobel Committee said in its citation. “Microcredit is one such means. Development from below also serves to advance democracy and human rights.”

Yunus’ groundbreaking Grameen Bank was the first lender to hand out microcredit, giving very small loans to poor Bangladeshis who did not qualify for loans from conventional banks. The bank does not require collateral from its borrowers and repayment is based on a collaborative, community-wide system.

If you want to experience the process of microfinance for yourself, check out the many lending opportunities at Kiva.org. With seed money of just $25, you can be part of a life-changing loan to a grocer in Oaxaca, Mexico or a teacher in Uganda.

The opportunities are limited only by your willingness to participate! Get involved today!

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