Corporate Social Responsibility Embedded in Prosperity Candle's Mission

The founders of Prosperity Candle appear to incorporate corporate social responsibility in the very fiber of their mission: investing in "women as independent and resourceful entrepreneurs who are critical to creating the foundations for peace and prosperous societies." The company focuses its efforts in places where women are living in distressed areas of the world such as Iraq, Afghanistan, Haiti and Rwanda. In essence, areas where social unrest, political conflict and natural disasters contribute to the Catch-22 of poverty cycles.

Hats off to Prosperity Candle for thus far training 50 women how to become entrepreneurs through candle making for international and local markets. From my perch, this company's corporate social responsibility 'initiative' is woven into the ethos of this enterprise. These folks aren't just talking the walk, they're walking it. I was intrigued when I learned about their operation, particularly as I pondered what lessons or opportunities there would be for corporate social responsibility officers in domestic and international regions.

So the time I spent tooling around their website gave me every indication that these folks are the real thing when it comes to covering the basis plus in regards to their own corporate social responsibility. They are training the targeted women to become trainers; they seek to prepare these entrepreneurs to not just have residual income from candle making but actually help them build successful businesses that employ many others in their communities. From an environmental perspective, they researched the health and environmental impacts of paraffin vs soy and developed a custom paraffin-soy blend that they believe is the most sustainable option after in-depth research. They have established impressive and inspiring relationships with for-profit, non-profit, academic institutions and a team of engaged professionals who have advised and helped them put this thought-provoking business into action. Speaking of interesting models, it turns out that Prosperity Candles is an L3C (Low-Profit Limited Company) organization, which the company claims allows them to "prioritize social benefit over profit, and are committed to empowering women entrepreneurs through sustainable, market-based commerce."

In his recent book  Building Social Business, Muhammad Yunus talks about a number of legal structure possibilities for his particular brand of 'social business.' In one of his chapters, he states that currently regulatory and legal systems don't offer a recognized business category for what he believes a social business is about. But until such time, he provides a discussion of a series of structure options for companies and provides strengths and weaknesses associate with each. As such, corporate social responsibility teams have some available options to consider, and the L3C discussion is well worth reading.

Yunus indicates that LC3s have been particularly designed to quality as legitimate PRIs (Program-Related Investments) from a legal and tax viewpoint, allowing foundations to invest in them. Interestingly, the Prosperity Candle Foundation has also been set up by the company to "support, inspire and educate women entrepreneurs in places of conflict and natural disaster around the world." Seems to me the corporate social responsibility thinkers at this social enterprise deserve a star.