Press Release

Robin Hood Asia signs first Asian business partner in fight against poverty

HO CHI MINH CITY (24 September 2007): A new organization dedicated to enrolling businesses in the fight against poverty announced today that it has secured the support of Unilever Indonesia as its first corporate partner.

To be launched at the Asian Forum on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in Ho Chi Minh City this week (28 Sept), Robin Hood Asia will bring new expertise to matching business CSR with work currently undertaken by NGOs, its CEO, Oren Schlein, a former UN development official, said today.

The organization builds on a successful model pioneered in the United States and New Zealand, where social development programs have gained valuable cash and expertise from partnerships with businesses committed to CSR. One example is the world’s first Internet share-donation site, developed for Goldman Sachs, which enables shareholders to contribute shares in support of NGOs and charitable causes.

With more poor in Asia than anywhere else in the world, he said the organization wanted to play a role in helping meet the Millennium Devolvement Goals and be part of a greater process of innovation in which Asia had already taken a lead in new initiatives such as microfinance and telecommunications.

"The support of Unilever Indonesia at this stage is a very welcome endorsement of the model and a key step in ensuring Robin Hood Asia can hit the ground running,” he said. As Robin Hood Asia's first business partner, Unilever Indonesia expect to accelerate their own CSR practice through Unilever's Peduli Foundation, Josef Bataona from Unilever said.

“We hope that Robin Hood Asia can help us share what we do with both our Indonesian community and wider networks both regional and global, inspiring others,” he said.

Mr Schlein has co-founded Robin Hood Asia with social entrepreneur Jude Mannion, who has for the last 5 years been CEO of Robin Hood Foundation in New Zealand developing corporate frameworks that take a social stand. She has worked with nearly 20 of the world’s biggest brands, including Coke, IBM, Microsoft, Goldman Sachs, Vodafone and UBS.