To Do Well By Doing Good
by Michael HoffmanSunday, May 6th, 2007
As my long time readers know I am very interested in the issue of corporate social responsibility as well as what Muhammad Yunis calls social enterprises, which are profitable companies that exist for the purpose of doing good. Two interesting articles in the Friday Times. One is about how Norway, with more than $300 billion in oil wealth, has decided to put a social filter on their investment decisions. This is a lot of money and it’s not making Wal-Mart or the American government happy, because of who is on their list.
The second article was about the Robin Hood benefit. If you don’t know the Robin Hood Foundation, they have a great message, ending poverty in NYC. That’s it. What they also have are hedge fund managers as supporters, among others. And so while American Idol raised $60 million by beating all of America over the head on national television, Robin Hood raised $71 million in a few hours with a bunch of very wealthy people. This event comes on the heals of the annual release of info about what these hedge fund guys make. I think I read that right… the top 25 hedge fund managers make $14 billion this past year. So yeah, it’s nice to give $71 million… but let’s keep it in perspective.
