Investing, Charity & Justice
Investing, Charity & Justice
What’s the best way to help a poor child? Give the parents a job! That is a long-term solution with dignity. Handouts never give dignity – jobs do. In Jewish tradition the highest form of charity is to provide employment, to create jobs.
Entrepreneurs and investors are key players when it comes to creating jobs. But starting and growing companies are not quick fixes, and demands a longer time horizon.
Peter Drucker says: “Every single social and global issue of our day is a business opportunity in disguise.” There are a lot of issues like poverty, environmental degradation, human trafficking, food insecurity and youth unemployment, which can be business opportunities.
Jesus described social and global problems like these in the Gospel of Matthew chapter 25, and linked them to our calling and responsibilities. His words are familiar: “I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.”
He talks about food insecurity, lack of access to water, need for health care and adequate housing. He goes on by saying that true disciples deal with these issues and help people in need. The church has responded to this over the centuries, mainly through non-profit mechanisms.
However, it has often been about treating symptoms, and thus a failure to address root causes. Why do people lack food and clean water, why are people homeless and victims of loan sharks, and can’t afford to send kids to school or the doctor? People with jobs are less likely to suffer from these problems.
As Christian business people and investors we also want to respond Jesus’ call to serve people and address these needs. But we do it with a for profit model, by creating living wage jobs through business.
The Business as Mission Manifesto states: “We recognise the fact that the church has a huge and largely untapped resource in the Christian business community to meet needs of the world – in and through business.”
We’re talking about businesses which will bring blessings to all stakeholders, including employees and the community, and not just the business owners.
Two thousand years of a prevalent response model has ingrained in us the charity and non-profit model. I am not suggesting it is bad or should be scrapped, but rather acknowledging the need for a mental paradigm shift, and it takes time and can be challenging.
I visited St. Andrew Catholic Church in Clemson, South Carolina early 2016, and their vision statement struck me:
“Charity” is the generosity that alleviates needs that are immediate. “Justice” is the process by which generosity configures our ways of providing education, delivering health care, doing business, and creating laws that lessen the need for charity. There will always be immediate needs even in the most just of worlds.
Charity is the more attractive generosity. We see immediate results for the better and we enjoy—here and now— the gratification that comes from doing good. Justice is less attractive because it usually calls for personal and communal change, and we are creatures of habit.”
We often respond to social and global issues through non-profit charity models. But a danger with these models is that some may have more of a PR function sprinkled with feel good factors, rather than dealing with systemic issues and root causes.
This article is a call for a justice mindset when we consider investing, and to grow companies in size, profitability, and holistic impact.
As the Wealth Creation Manifesto puts it: “Business has a special capacity to create financial wealth, but also has the potential to create different kinds of wealth for many stakeholders, including social, intellectual, physical and spiritual wealth. Wealth creation through business has proven power to lift people and nations out of poverty.”
This can be accomplished if like-minded investors deploy patient capital to bring human flourishing alongside financial return. God wants people to flourish. Or as St. Irenaeus, the great second-century theologian, expressed it: “the glory of God is a human being fully alive”.
Ad maiorem Dei Gloriam - all to the greater glory of God
Mats Tunehag
