Jeff Rutt: Empowering women through microfinance

In 1997, Jeff Rutt established HOPE International, a Christian faith-based nonprofit organization committed to alleviating physical and spiritual poverty through microenterprise development.

Jeff Rutt Image credit: ChuckGallagher.Files.Wordpress.com

It is not by chance that the majority of HOPE’s microfinance clients are women. It seems that even from the beginning of microfinance, its beneficiaries are mostly women. This just shows that the opportunities are still scarce for women to succeed in business today.

In many countries where HOPE works, women belong to the marginalized section of the society, deprived of education and prohibited to work outside their homes. Through its outreach programs, HOPE observed that when given the opportunity to start their own business, women are highly motivated to work hard to make their enterprises succeed.

Jeff Rutt Image credit: BewitchedBreaks.co.uk

Jeff Rutt’s HOPE International also notes that women are prudent borrowers. Not only do they repay more consistently than their male counterparts, but women are also more likely to use their business profits to support their families. When a microfinance institution empowers a woman to improve her income, the resulting profits are typically used to provide better nutrition, to improve housing, or to support children’s education.

Jeff Rutt and HOPE International believe that women have a unique opportunity to make their mark in the fight against poverty.

There are also instances when microfinance results in non-financial benefits. HOPE cites the story of one of its savings groups in India, and how the group was able to save one of its members from an abusive relationship. The member shared that her husband consistently beat her. Though she had told him to stop, the beatings continued. The 15 women in the group decided that they would go together to confront the husband. They told him that they supported his wife and that he must stop beating her. Knowing that the abuse was no longer secret and that others cared for his wife enough to confront him, the husband stopped beating and hurting his wife.

Jeff Rutt Image credit: HOPEInternational.org

For Jeff Rutt and HOPE International, microfinance enables women from developed countries to reach out to their fellow women in developing countries, giving them the freedom and respect they have been denied for a long time.

To know more about Mr. Rutt and HOPE International, visit www.hopeinternational.org.

The Volunteer Dating Game

Hi everyone, Jeff Rutt here. It takes a lot to make a nonprofit successful. It often starts with having the right mission and vision as well as a clear plan for how you will accomplish your goals.  Once you have a set plan in mind, it takes a lot of resources to make your goals a reality. Time, money, and talented people who are passionate about your cause are essential components to a well run nonprofit. The article below featured in Sustainable Business Forum discusses how valuable committed passionate volunteers can be to non profits. Specifically, the article talks about Gap Inc and their new program which encourages employees to find causes where they can best use their skills and passions to make a difference. Through their volunteer program, Gap Inc is leading the way in corporate social responsibility by being a model for smart volunteering. At HOPE we have seen firsthand the benefits that come from corporate social responsibility that makes sense, through our Homes for Hope program. Through Homes for Hope we have had the privilege of partnering with talented builders from around the country to make a difference in peoples lives around the world.  Homes for Hope takes the skills and passions of home builders and applies them in practical ways to further HOPE’s mission. If you’re not familiar with our Homes for Hope program, check it out by visiting our website http://www.homes4hope.org/ and consider ways that you can use your skills and passion to help a cause near you!

Many blessings, Jeff Rutt

The Volunteer Dating Game

In the world of those who volunteer to make a better world, some dream of settling down.  But not you.  Nosiree. You enjoy the variety of volunteering with many different organizations and causes.  Last month it was a cancer nonprofit, today it’s a dog rescue. You heard that a literacy organization is having an awesome fundraiser next month so that’s the next cause on tap, and maybe after that you’ll try on a sustainability charity for size - recycling could be cool.

Sure, your nonprofit relationships don’t seem to be progressing, but that’s fine. Volunteering with a wide range of causes is fun and keeps things interesting.

I mean, yeah, it would be nice to get a little deep sometimes, focus on one charity that gets to know the real you, y’know?  Where you could go beyond the basics, contribute your full self, maybe even graduate to something more long-term.  Make a difference, grow a little, find that one nonprofit that you’ll keep coming home to.

But for whatever reason, you haven’t taken the plunge, so volunteer mingling will have to suffice.

A Healthier Relationship

It doesn’t have to be this way.  Imagine a world where the energy, passion and skills of volunteers aligned perfectly with the needs and capacity of nonprofits. Where expectations were calibrated and trust was built over time.

That’s the world that Gap Inc. is working to create with its global teams of employee volunteers. Reflecting feedback from the community that some volunteer projects were fun for the volunteers, but not as valuable to the nonprofits as they could have been, Gap Inc. realized that if it was going to facilitate meaningful relationships between its employees and causes, it needed to get everyone “dating” with an eye towards long-term relationships between employee teams and nonprofit organizations. Gap Inc. thinks of this as the “date, then get married” approach to volunteering.

“We started our volunteer program around a more traditional skills-based framework,” noted Gail Gershon, Gap’s Executive Director of Community Leadership. “We’d ask our nonprofit partners what they needed and then try to match them with employee volunteers who had relevant skills. But this approach wasn’t sustainable.  What we heard from nonprofits and employees was that the more effective way to move toward skills-based volunteering would be for teams to develop long-term partnerships with nonprofits, to get to know their needs and help the nonprofit better understand the skills that the team of employees represented. Then, the skills could be applied to the volunteering more naturally and build over time, and the volunteers could work to fulfill a variety of needs faced by their nonprofit partner.” 

Further, Gail added, Gap Inc. wants to make sure that volunteer activity is valuable to the nonprofit, not just a pleasant diversion for the volunteer. “Sometimes volunteering is designed to be the best possible experience for the volunteer but not what is most critical to the nonprofit.”

Thus was shaped a worldview that smartly applies dating philosophies to volunteer programs. 

Toward this end, Gap Inc. encourages every team (which could be a store or an office location) to elect a person who will be their Community Leader.  That one person is then charged with finding an appropriate nonprofit partner that the entire team will support, ideally over an extended period of time so that the quality of the volunteering is most meaningful for both the volunteer and nonprofit.  And just like your mama told you, Gap Inc. teams are discouraged from marrying after their first date.  Instead, they’re encouraged to ask themselves: is this a fit? When should we go steady? When should we move in together? How can we really get to know each other before making that final commitment?

“The nonprofit needs to invest in the volunteers and train them. That requires precious time and resources from the nonprofit’s staff.  So if the nonprofit doesn’t know if you’re coming back, why should they waste their time?” said Gail. “We encourage our teams to get to a place where there’s mutual trust.”  When the trust and fit is there, that’s when employees can effectively leverage their skills, which can potentially make a longer term impact over time.

Wave of CSR's Future

Gap Inc. has plenty of company in their belief that skills-based volunteering is the wave of the corporate social responsibility future.  That’s why they’re one of more than 100 pledge companies for A Billion + Change, a national campaign to make skills-based volunteering the new normal in every workplace, which has already elicited a promise of more than $1.7 billion and at least 11.5 million hours of time and talent dedicated to building nonprofit capacity. Gap Inc. shared their wisdom about encouraging skills-based volunteering at this week’s Corporate Philanthropy Summit, a forum for best practices around corporate giving which A Billion + Change has helped organize.

For energized corporate volunteers and future changemakers, finding a nonprofit that best meets your passion is an outcome that translates into satisfaction and impact.  Who knows – Gap Inc. may even have some advice on the right wedding togs to wear when you and your nonprofit are ready to make things official.

Thanks again for reading, stay tuned for more articles and comments-Jeff Rutt

Posted on http://sustainablebusinessforum.com/causecast/58406/volunteer-dating-game

Oh, The Humanities!: Does a donation really count if no one sees you giving?

Hello this is Jeff Rutt, I recently came across this article published by a Canadian newspaper about a recent academic humanities conference. At the conference one of the most popular papers that was presented centered around the topic of charitable giving. According to the paper, charitable giving has become a trendy thing to do primarily in North American culture. Giving has become trendy not necessarily because people are passionate about the cause they are giving to, but because they want to appear as a certain kind of person to their friends. Many celebrities like Angelina Jolie have made it cool to give your time and money towards a cause. Many people can identify with that wanting to feel like they are someone who is a part of something bigger, or who cares about a cause. As the founder of an organization that relies heavily on charitable giving, I’m excited about the push in our culture for people to give back. However, I know that it takes more than a passing trend to create real change in the lives of those less fortunate. Making real and lasting change involves a commitment on the part of the giver and a passion to see a project through to the end. Although giving is almost always appreciated, the Bible states that the best giving is that done with a right heart and attitude. In Mark 12 Jesus tells his disciples that a woman who had given just a small gift had given the best gift because she gave out of a pure heart and gave all that she could. At HOPE we appreciate any donation that is given to us, but we it is our desire that those who give do so not because its trendy but out of a pure heart to serve others and make true and lasting change for the Kingdom.

(The following text is excerpted from: http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/05/28/oh-the-humanities-does-a-donation-really-count-if-no-one-sees-you-giving/)

Oh, The Humanities!: Does a donation really count if no one sees you giving?

Donating money to charity has become highly fashionable, a status symbol that has been dubbed “conspicious giving,” and comes with the burden of social expectation and manipulation, according to a paper to be presented at the Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences conference on Wednesday.

University of Alberta instructor Margrit Talpalaru coined the “conspicious giving” term to describe the way corporations, charities and society at large have latched onto North Americans’ desire for the visibility that comes with donating time or money.

“In the rampantly consumerist Western society of the 21st century, conspicuous giving has become the true status marker,” writes Ms. Talpalaru, a English and film studies instructor. “Charitable donors, especially famous ones, have become modern-day heroes, while ordinary people are being judged by their giving.”

North Americans find role models in celebrities like Angelina Jolie, who has served as a United Nations special envoy for refugees and last week released a line of jewellery that will benefit children in Africa.

Canadian do-gooders Marc and Craig Kielburger’s social enterprise Me to We uses corporate strategies to boost their cause of improving life for children all over the world (you can buy a Pamoja Unity Bracelet on their website for only $49.99).

Ms. Talpalaru said 1985’s Live Aid concert for Ethiopia was a precursor. The expertly marketed Run for the Cure campaign for breast cancer research, with its ubiquitous pink ribbon, is another.

Corporate interest flooded in after billionaires Warren Buffett and Bill Gates made The Giving Pledge in 2010, breathing life into the idea of “philanthrocapitalism.”

“You can see how celebrity culture, celebrity activism trickles down and puts these pressures on everyday people like you and I donating more time or money and to win stuff for charity,” she said. “The competition that is so prized by capitalism now has to be tinged with the moral value of giving to charity. It’s no longer good enough that you’re good at something, you’ve won something, you have to give at least part of it to charity.”

The new Global TV reality show Canada Sings gets workplace colleagues to form a glee club and compete on live television. Their winnings go to charity — an act that was once the sole domain of celebrities when they played TV game shows like Jeopardy or The Price is Right.

She’s also concerned corporate sponsors could take full control of charity fundraisers and research projects, with their money-making interests potentially overshadowing the social good. And she suggests that if individuals are more interested in funding good causes, the government may choose to do less of it.

She cautions the meteoric rise of doing good has also come with the burden of social expectation — if everyone else is taking donations for charity in lieu of gifts, why aren’t you? While this focus on giving is inherently good, Ms. Talpalaru is urging more thought and debate about the phenomena.

“The only pitfall is to follow blindly.”


Thanks again for reading, stay tuned for more articles and comments- Jeff Rutt