Yunus Social Business

Overview

Yunus Social Business is a non-profit organization founded in 2011 by Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Prof. Muhammad Yunus, Saskia Bruysten, and Sophie Eisenmann. The organization operates through two main units: Yunus Funds, which provides patient loans and support to social businesses, and Yunus Corporate Innovation, which assists corporations in integrating social business models into their operations. Their mission is to harness the power of business to end poverty and the climate crisis. Yunus Funds focuses on growing local social businesses that offer essential services such as employment, education, healthcare, clean water, and clean energy to over 17 million people across East Africa, Latin America, and India. They provide long-term, patient loans and hands-on growth support to these businesses, aiming to multiply their impact over time. Their geographical footprint includes Brazil, Colombia, India, Kenya, Uganda, and Rwanda. The organization has a history of supporting various social businesses, including Impact Water, which provides affordable water-purification systems to schools in Uganda. As of 2022, Impact Water had installed systems in 32,517 schools, reaching 14.3 million students. Yunus Social Business also co-initiated the COVID Alliance for Social Entrepreneurship in 2020, bringing together 100 social-impact organizations to support social businesses during the health crisis. Additionally, they launched Unusual Pioneers in 2021, a social-intrapreneurship accelerator for corporations, in partnership with the World Economic Forum's Schwab Foundation and Porticus. Yunus Social Business operates with the belief that social businesses have deep experience in harnessing business tools to tackle challenges like poverty and the climate crisis. They work with both social businesses and corporations, believing that each has something to learn from the other. Their approach includes turning donations into investments in social businesses, which are reinvested over and over again, multiplying the impact each time. Their headquarters are located in Berlin, Germany.