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According to a 2019 point-in-time count, there are more than 612 unsheltered homeless individuals in the Coachella Valley. A Southern California company, Renova Energy, has handed out a few dozen cell phone solar chargers to homeless individuals living in Sunrise Park in downtown Palm Springs to power their phones while living unsheltered so they can reach public safety, caseworkers, family members, doctors and friends.
Renova Energy CEO Vincent Battaglia believes that any business no matter how large or small has the responsibility to give back. And he's not alone.
Companies around the country are doing more to tackle homelessness. Some companies, like Microsoft, are providing loans for affordable housing in Seattle. Others are small start-ups like The Giving Keys, an L.A. jewelry company that hires homeless individuals, or Detroit's Empowerment Plan, which hires homeless women to sew jackets for people on the streets.
According to experts, there are several ways businesses can work toward being socially responsible: philanthropy, volunteering, using company skills to create human-centered products or services, or providing innovative opportunities for community members.
For any business wanting to be sustainable and mission-based, it needs to be innovative. Abby Fifer Mandell, a University of Southern California business professor and the Brittingham Social Enterprise Lab director, requires the need for business models that are "financially sustainable, which means they have to be clever, creative and innovative, and are also digging deep on pressing problems by addressing long-term solutions." Read the Entire Article
Selected Grant News Headlines
A customized collection of grant news from foundations and the federal government from around the Web.
Foundation: Marguerite Casey Foundation, Marguerite Casey Foundation, Kresge Foundation
Stephen Stephens' father died of cancer when he was 53, and his message to young people has stayed with him. "Always do the right thing son," he tells Fast Company. "That message has always...more
Foundation: Indianapolis Foundation
Lynne Arriale's new album, Being Human, is all about "people who exemplify Passion, courage, love, curiosity, and other human qualities," the Florida pianist tells Rita Kohn of the Indianapolis...more
"If the class register were anything to go by, education would be one of modern civilization's greatest success stories." That's what Peter Wilson, a member of the UBS Accelerate Collective, had...more
Foundation: Gates Foundation
Melinda French Gates is stepping down as co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which she founded with her ex-husband Bill Gates more than 20 years ago. As part of an agreement made...more
Ahmad Al-Mallahi is a professor of agricultural engineering and sensing technologies at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Canada, and he's spent the past five years developing technology that could...more
Deforestation in south-east Asia could slash the region's GDP by 35%, according to a new report from Reuters. And that's not all. The report also finds that $100 billion pledged to fight...more
"At a time of multiple crises and scarce resources for development, this is a unique value proposition for governments everywhere." So says the head of the African Development Bank in praising...more
The People's Bank of China says it will start allowing people in China to use the country's new digital currency, the Digital Yuan, to buy goods and services starting next month, the BBC...more
When it comes to corporate social responsibility, India's government and public sector companies are at the top of the list. But when it comes to companies of all sizes, they're at the bottom,...more
The world's biggest state investors are getting into the business of making positive social and environmental impact investments. Singapore's Temasek Holdings, one of the world's largest state...more
Social Entrepreneurship
Spotlight
Celebrity Chef Jamie Oliver Backs Social Saturday
UK will be celebrating its first national celebration of social enterprises dubbed as Social Saturday. World famous celebrity chef Jamie Oliver, who founded the Fifteen restaurant chain.
