From One Startup to Another
| posted by Matt WiseleyIt’s heartening to see FastCompany’s social content network
include Social Responsibility among its eight base categories. Businesses as a
whole have so much potential to change the world for the better - so much more
than individuals mailing in their $25 donations to charities begging via bulk
mail or television ads. Imagine if every large corporation had a Social
Responsibility department, much like they have Human Resources and IT
departments now, charged with steering the company’s activity away from irresponsible
and towards responsible practices, and finding creative ways to combine the
company’s interests with the interests of humanity and the world as a whole. Greenbiz.com
has a good article about integrating
such an idea with the existing functions within a corporation.
As the owner of a small business, I took on this charter
with my own company. What could I do to help humanity or the world as a whole,
while also helping my company? After considering a few options, I chose to formally
support Kiva.org, a micro-lending company
that provides interest-free loans to entrepreneurs in developing countries. EditMe
uses a portion of its pool of deferred revenue from customer’s 6 and 12 month
pre-payments to fund Kiva loans. While EditMe could be earning interest on this
money, it costs nothing from the bottom line to use it for this purpose
instead. Even with Kiva’s average 0.3% default rate, this is a small price for
not only helping others, but helping EditMe as well.
And what does EditMe get from this? First, the satisfaction
that people just like me are getting the assistance they need to do what I’m
doing – owning and operating my own business. Second, every loan made links to EditMe’s profile on Kiva, which
includes a brief blurb about the company and our logo. Third, and my favorite,
it communicates to current and prospective customers what kind of company
EditMe is, and provides a real and direct way for them to participate, at no additional
cost to them. By simply paying 6 or 12 months in advance, they are creating the
pool of money used to fund our Kiva loans, and taking on none of the risk. As
of this writing, EditMe has made 65 loans to date, and plans to increase the
rate of loans as Kiva is able to increase its ability to find new
entrepreneurs. We may also take this program to other micro-lending
organizations as our pool of deferred revenue continues to grow over time.
