“For every talent that poverty has stimulated, it has blighted a hundred.”
— John W. Gardner, founder of Common Cause
Thanks to all who are buying and reading my new book, Radiant Mormonism, to learn ways we can reduce human suffering and change the world, using an LDS perspective. With growing interest from my colleagues leading NGOs from their U.S. headquarters, as well as managers of our teams in dozens of countries, innovations, cases, and new strategies are being acquired from the work. I’m gratified so many LDS leaders, including General Authorities and auxiliary heads, mission leaders, stake and ward officers are benefiting as we all seek to lift those in deep poverty. Pass the word. Share the tools. Make a difference!
The book is published by BCC Press, 2022, with a dozen in-depth cases of Social Entrepreneurship and Microcredit in various nations. One hundred percent of royalties will be donated to trusted global NGOs.
“Philippines Indigenous Management: The Founding of Enterprise Mentors,” Exchange Magazine, Spring 1996.
“Microfinance, Economics, and Business Collaboration: Subsistence Entrepreneurship for the World,” (Eagle Condor Peru, Mentors Philippines, HELP International Global, Carolina Initiative). Global Journal of Economics and Finance (GJEF), UK, Vol. 4, No. 2, July 2020, pp. 1-8.
Working Toward Zion: Principles of the United Order for the Modern World, Aspen Books, with James W. Lucas, 484 pp.
“Business Models for Alleviating Poverty in Times of War: Microentrepreneurship Strategies for Survival” Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship (ASBE), Corpus Christi, Texas.
“Village Development and Microcredit in Africa,” Microentrepreneurship, Microenterprise, and Microfinance.
“Unite Us for a Better World: The Future of Microfinance,” Social Impact Management Conference, Wharton Business School, University of Pennsylvania.
“Where Credit is Due,” Small Really is Beautiful: Micro Approaches to Third World Development.
Today, while millions of rich people have become part of a larger than ever wealthy class, 1.2 billion individuals struggle to survive on less than a dollar a day. Another 1.3 billion live on less than $2 a day. They are the world’s poorest, totaling over a third of the planet’s people, the “hyper-poor.” The concept of poverty emphasizes the lack of material comforts, basic needs, and even psychological conditions such as a loss of dignity, insecurity and fear.
Microcredit, is the granting of tiny loans of usually $50-$100 to help impoverished Third World families start a microenterprise. It is a terrific strategy for global change that I have put my heart and soul in to mobilize BYU, the Church, and numerous NGOs to embrace. Although for two decades, most government experts and academics ridiculed such a radically simple idea, today, microfinance is growing like wildfire as a tool for building self-reliance. In the past 15 years, it’s been a privilege for me to labor and sweat in the trenches and the jungles with the global poor, and to help “lift the hands of those who hang down” through sustainable microcredit strategies.
In sum, I’m an unabashed optimist. I have a great faith in America’s destiny and goodness. I also believe that with our resources and ingenuity we can solve global problems. The war against terror won’t do it. We need to be for peace and justice, not just against something. Unleashing the power of microcredit has the potential for eliminating poverty—not just the reduction of poverty, but its complete eradication.
Engaged Learning in MBA Programs: Hands-on Microfinance
(Woodworth PPT at Global Economics Conference, Tel Aviv, 2017)
“Self-reliance is the only road to true freedom, and being one’s own person is its ultimate reward.”
— Patricia Sampson, author of A Star to Steer By
Friends of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saint Kiva Donations
A generous check in 2005 to help finance the growth of Yehu Village Bank in Southern Kenya. The organization now has about 40,000 female microentrepreneurs as they move toward family self-reliance.