Grameen Foundation : Resource Center : Print Newsletter : Fall 2003 : Donors' Corner: H. Rick Mashhoon
Donors' Corner: H. Rick Mashhoon
In an uncertain economic climate, people who want to create a more just world are increasingly seeking to support organizations that demonstrate the financial soundness they would look for in a for-profit enterprise and ones that leverage each philanthropic investment to achieve the broadest impact possible. For philanthropists like Rick Mashhoon, profiled below, Grameen Foundation USA (GFUSA) meets these criteria by employing a sound business model to achieve a social objective.
Rick Mashhoon clearly knows how to run a business. Bon Appetit Danish, Inc., the company he founded and leads, is one of the fastest growing bakeries in the world. In recent years, he has brought the vision and creativity that led to his success in the world of commerce to bear on social justice issues like poverty. Addressing these issues, he says, is essential to developing democracy and encouraging basic human rights.
Rick first learned of GFUSA when he attended GFUSA's annual awards luncheon in Los Angeles in 2002. He found the presentation by Pioneer Award recipient Roshaneh Zafar, founder and Managing Director of the Kashf Foundation, to be particularly compelling. Roshaneh not only leads the only GFUSA partner organization in Pakistan, but was also the first Ashoka Fellow in Pakistan. As a long-time supporter of Ashoka and its strategy of providing early support to emerging "social entrepreneurs," Rick appreciated the way in which his philanthropic goals were being realized by the collaborative work of Ashoka and GFUSA to support Roshaneh and her organization. "I was impressed with Roshaneh's business plan, the scope of the project and the operating procedures," Rick remembers. "The success of the Kashf Foundation made a very good case for the power of microcredit."
When Rick met Roshaneh in April 2002, Kashf was serving fewer than 15,000 women. Seeing their potential, Rick agreed to support GFUSA's newly launched microfinance initiative in Pakistan, which included a major focus on helping the Kashf Foundation scale-up its operation to reach more women. During the year following GFUSA's initial investment, Kashf tripled its outreach, growing to serve 45,000 women by June 2003. On three occasions during that year, Rick received reports of Kashf's progress and responded by increasing his support for GFUSA's work in Pakistan.
Rapid growth like the kind achieved by Kashf can happen with other MFI partners in GFUSA's "seedbed" portfolio (smaller start-ups that have both the desire and capacity to expand quickly), as more donors embrace the vision that led Rick to invest in the future of microfinance in Pakistan through GFUSA. "The real value of Grameen Foundation USA is that, in addition to savvy technical assistance and access to the global microcredit community, they are able to provide high quality due diligence to monitor the work of their partners," Rick notes.
Rick is also involved in exploring the ways in which social and economic problems can be addressed not just by direct funding, but by the development of value driven businesses as well- very much in the spirit of Dr. Muhammad Yunus and the Grameen Family of Companies in Bangladesh. One of his most recent investments is in a for-profit venture that will manufacture and market hearing aids featuring new, low-cost technology. Higher profits from domestic sales will make the product more affordable abroad and produce profits that can be invested in non-profit activities. Rick is working with the GFUSA Program Committee to develop similar approaches that could benefit GFUSA and its partners.
Though he usually reserves the term for others, like Roshaneh, Rick himself is a "social entrepreneur" who is blurring the line between business and philanthropy to effectively address pressing social concerns. Grameen Foundation USA, working in partnership with dedicated supporters like Rick Mashhoon, is at the forefront of this movement, developing new solutions to the age-old problem of poverty.
Grameen Foundation : Resource Center : Print Newsletter : Fall 2003 : Donors' Corner: H. Rick Mashhoon
Grameen Foundation uses microfinance and innovative technology to fight global poverty and bring opportunities to the world's poorest people. With tiny loans and financial services, we help the poor, mostly women, start businesses and escape poverty. Our global network of 55 microfinance institution (MFI) partners including our Growth Guarantee partners has touched more than 34 million people in 24 countries. In addition, we introduced and now sustain technology initiatives (Mifos and Village Phone) in Cameroon, Kenya, Rwanda, and Uganda, bringing our total country outreach to 28.
+1-202-628-3560 www.grameenfoundation.org
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