World of Good

My former roomate, Margot Welk, was in the Peace Corps in Thailand and eventually started her own fair trade business in Southeast Asia, Beyond the Banyan Tree. She is now working with the for-profit company, World of Good, which directs 10% of its profits to its sister non-profit, World of Good Development Organization. (Side note: Google, a somewhat larger organization, also has a similar model where they direct profits and equity to their charitable arm, Google.org, more on Google to come in future blogs). World of Good provides a nice example for how business techniques, globalization, and capitalism can be a potentially synergistic and positive effector for the poor, but I suspect some would still disagree on principle.