Tuesday, September 20, 2016
The article above notes the work of TOMS Shoes, a for-profit social enterprise that donates shoes to children in the developing world. Here is a second take on TOMS Shoes: Bloomberg reports on a new World Bank analysis of its impact. Based on almost 1,600 children in El Salvador, the authors concluded that the donations had "negligible" overall impact. Among the possible reasons: the majority of children already had shoes, and the donated shoes were low-cost and so did not do much to help families by freeing up cash for other expenses. The takeaway: effective CSR efforts need to be carefully designed and targeted.