Social Entrepreneur of the Year Anshu Gupta: Creating a Parallel Economy wi...

Social Entrepreneur of the Year Anshu Gupta:
Creating a Parallel Economy with Reused Material

Anshu Gupta, an Ashoka and Schwab Fellow is the founder of GOONJ.org, a social enterprise that has created social innovations to address critical gaps in the developing world. Making clothing a matter of concern in the development sector emerged as his life’s calling with GOONJ. Considered one of the leading social enterprises in India, GOONJ, is focused on under resourced areas in development work; whether its clothing, cloth sanitary pads for women, or school materials for children. The organization is addressing the growing gap between prospering cities and rural villages, by moving resources from the former, who discard it as waste, to the later, for whom it is precious.

Anshu’s efforts to bring wider attention to the most ignored basic need of humans, clothing, has led to many organizations replicating GOONJ’s initiatives and methods. Today people call it the genesis of a parallel economy where instead of money, clothing works as currency received for work performed. Clothing, in Anshu’s words, is not just a basic need but a symbol of dignity for all of us. Hear about his experiences creating this cultural change - conscious giving, not thoughtless dumping - and how he came to lead one of the world’s largest civic participation movements.

Date: Tuesday, April 30, 2013
Time: 12:00-1:30 pm
Location: Haas School of Business, UC Berkeley
Directions & parking: http://bit.ly/cnpl-parking
Light food and beverages will be served

Accolades for Anshu Gupta and GOONJ:

A former journalist, Anshu left the corporate world to found GOONJ in 1998 and is now popularly known as the “Clothing Man”. Listed in Forbes as one of the India’s most powerful entrepreneurs, Anshu’s organization, GOONJ has won many prestigious awards including the Innovation for India award, Lien i3 challenge, CNN-IBN Real Hero’s Award, India NGO of the Year Award, Changemakers Innovation Awards and Development Market Place Award from the World Bank. GOONJ has also been chosen as a ‘Game Changing Innovation’ by NASA & US State dept. in a worldwide search & selection. Most recently, Anshu was named “Social Entrepreneur of the Year” by the Schwab Foundation. Learn more: https://www.ashoka.org/node/2523

For other events offered by the Center for Nonprofit and Public Leadership, visit http://nonprofit.haas.berkeley.edu/events.html

This Schwab Charitable Philanthropy Speaker Series is co-sponsored by:

The business of making a difference starts here!