There are so many shopping guides out there for the holidays. Why is ours superior, seriously? Because these companies don't just create wonderful products, they create good jobs, they care for the environment and create the positive changes we need in the world. And, finally, they are all "Investees" -- the Untours Foundation has backed them with a low-interest loan or an equity investment.
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On October 3rd, Untours -- the foundation and business together -- hosted the first-ever Ungala, in celebration of 40 years of Untours and 23 years of the foundation. We brought together staff, board members, Untourists and donors, investees and community partners into a board member's home for a cozy evening of socializing. We've always been about blurring the lines between business and philanthropy (a word Hal disliked), but bringing all these folks together was perhaps the first time we had literally mixed it ALL up in person.
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Norma Lee Black Taussig, our dear friend and co-founder of the foundation, died yesterday at 92. I think Norma would have said she wasn’t 92 years “young,” but 92 years “old.” She lived through much hardship including the death of her beloved brother when she was young to living with the effects of a serious
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EcoZoom produces beautifully designed, affordable, low-emission and low-fuel cookstoves. Their clean burning, portable charcoal and wood powered cookstoves are available for sale as camp cookstoves in the US. But as part of the company’s social mission, the stoves are also distributed throughout the world to replace traditional stoves which require a great deal of fuel
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This nifty radio piece investigates how a new business model is trying to help people in Haiti. While they don’t exactly quote Hal’s phrase “A hand up, not a handout,” there is a similar mindset — that business might have some answers to problems that charity alone can’t solve. (Just for full disclosure, we have
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There’s a new crop of business incubators and shared work spaces around the US that are housing some of our current and potential loan recipients, among others. Myself and Jon Blum, our fantastic pro bono consultant, just visited one such space, The Pipeline, in Philadelphia. The view from one of its meeting rooms is Philadelphia City Hall with
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If you haven’t seen it, the Philadelphia Inquirer ran a very informative article in 2012 about Hal and Norma and their wishes for the Untours Foundation. Read it here. We couldn’t summarize better ourselves what’s been going on. The foundation board is working hard to maintain Hal’s legacy, while also remembering that Hal said, “If
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We are so grateful for all the support we have received this year from you, our generous donors. Since 100% of your donations go into the loan fund, we are able to expand our mission of funding innovative businesses that make the world a better place. We are of course sending out personal thank you and
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December 2014 Dear Untours family, As a youngster, my grandfather “Pop” taught himself to read out of boredom during long church services, sitting on the floor at his father’s knee. While the minister read the scripture aloud, he would follow his father’s finger on the words in the Bible. In time, Pop could read what
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