In Business, Creating Sustainable Enterprises & Communities

IN BUSINESS FOR A BETTER WORLD

In Business, September-October, 2005, Vol. 27, No. 5, p. 10

Unconventional Pennsylvania travel company creates a nonprofit foundation to help the poor at home and abroad.

Elizabeth Killough and Jerome Goldstein

FOR HIS 80th birthday this past November, Hal Taussig received his first new bike ever from the staff of Idyll, Ltd, a unique travel business in Media, Pennsylvania offering “UNTOUR” packages. That bike replaced the ten-speed he had used to ride to and from work every day. Most profits from the business - owned by Taussig and his wife Norma - are given to their Idyll Development Foundation (IDF) for the purpose of social investing. The Taussigs - along with their agency and foundation - believe in living simply and sharing profits of their business to create a better world. In 1999, they won an award from Paul Newman and John F. Kennedy, Jr., for having “The Most Generous Company in America.”
Last year, Untours generated $8 million in sales; after-tax profits go into the Foundation. Since its founding, the Idyll Development Foundation has loaned out over $4 million, funding 90 projects locally and abroad to individuals and organizations to create jobs, build low income housing, support Fair Trade products - through the most environmentally-friendly means possible. “Fair Trade” is a certification given to products where the providers and workers are guaranteed a fair price and wage, consumers are guaranteed superior goods, and land is farmed in a sustainable way.
The interest rate on foundation loans is the inflation rate, so currently three percent is charged annually. Most loan recipients have no collateral or track record to borrow money through conventional lending institutions. The concept of low interest loans is timely with the United Nations declaring 2005 The International Year of Microcredit.

LOAN RECIPIENTS
The Foundation's portfolio is quite eclectic, with loans ranging in size from $6,000 to $250,000. Following is a sampling of loans recently made:
Home Care Associates (HCA) of Philadelphia - worker-owned cooperative of 120 people, most former welfare recipients; Dual mission is to create quality jobs while offering quality home health care that includes training home care aides (visit www.homecareassociatespa.com.)
Landless Workers Movement (MST) of Brazil - assisted over a million Brazilian farmers in creating self-sufficient lives on farmland that had been unused; Assists 75 to 100 farmers at a time selecting land, improving soil, establishing communities; Funds creation of small businesses like developing organic seed companies.
Second Act Access of Media, Pennsylvania - Nonprofit construction company builds handicap accessible housing while providing construction training to formerly unemployed and underemployed individuals; first house is being completed and once sold, Second Act will pay off $250,000 loan and begin next project.
Belu Spring Water of London, England - Like Untours, Belu is giving 100 percent of its profits away to fund clean water products; In late July, Belu unveiled its biodegradable and compostable water bottle made from corn starch.
ShoreBank, Rehab CDs of Chicago - A full-scale bank committed to investing in low-income areas, this project rehabs abandoned apartment buildings; Minority construction firms are provided with contracts as low income housing is provided. IDF has $125,000 invested in these CDs.
Intertribal Council on Utility Policy (ICOUP) - The foundation is finalizing a loan to ICOUP which is building the St. Francis wind farm on the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota. Reservations in South Dakota are on dry, windy land that is not suitable for farming. The wind farm is a perfect business for this area of the country. ICOUP will sell “clean” energy to consumers providing an income to the tribes involved. This project is financed in part by NativeEnergy, 51 percent of which will soon be owned by ICOUP.

HOW “UNTOURS” WORK
As described in an article in Hope Magazine several years ago by Mark Harris, clients who use the services of Idyll's Untours are steered off the path of camera-toting tourists into private apartments in out-of-the-way neighborhoods and remote villages of Europe, etc. for immersions in the local culture. The goal is to “invite the unpredictable, while experiencing a social mission.” Says Hal Taussig: “When people have contact with a way of life different from their own, they are much less willing to make war on other cultures.”
Commenting about the Taussigs' commercial concepts, Ben Cohen - cofounder of Ben and Jerry's - recently said: “What makes them a wonderful model is that it shows that you can have a progressive business, and that people with progressive values can live out their values in a business environment. What makes Hal so special is that he combines real kindness and compassion with that practical business side, and that is the key to making a difference.”
After a series of small business woes that included cattle ranching in Colorado and untenured professorships in Kentucky, Taussig launched Idyll Untours in 1975 with a $5,000 loan from a friend. The first Untour in 1975 sent six clients to southern Switzerland; by 2000, some 5,000 Untourists went to more than a dozen European spots. Some 40 percent of their clients come back for more trips.
Its staff of about 20 employees receives salaries 20 percent above the industry average. Taussig is constantly wrestling with the challenge of being generous with his staff and the mission to get money to the poor.
In 1992 when the Idyll Development Foundation was created, Taussig was partly inspired by the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh, which makes microloans to local women to start small, practical ventures. Currently, it's estimated that a billion dollars in Grameen loans are circulating with a repayment rate of close to 97 percent. Idyll Development's first loans were made in spring 1994 when the nonprofit status was finally approved. Taussig rates each project by how safe it is - on a scale from one to five, one being the least safe.
“We want to average three, not five. We want to take some chances. So we're setting ourselves up to lose some.” The bulk of Foundation loans are paid back in full, while businesses have been launched that thrive and prosper under their own power.
Taussig has been increasingly able to encourage other business people to join him and connect with those who already are working for change. “I'm trying to network more,” he points out. For several years, the Taussigs have been working with Judy Wicks, owner of Philadelphia's White Dog Cafe and cofounder of BALLE (Business Alliance For Local Living Economies), to find more money for job creation. He's also writing a book on a better response to terrorism. Notes a friend: “Anyone else in Hal's shoes would be writing an autobiography, but Hal is truly too humble to even think of such a thing!”
For additional details about the company and the Foundation, visit their websites - untours.com and idylldevelopmentfoundation.org.

Elizabeth Killough is Associate Director of the Idyll Development Foundation based in Media, Pennsylvania.

WALKING THE TALK AT IDYLL LTD.
THE UNTOURS/FOUNDATION office in Media “walks its talk” just as Hal Taussig does. For example, there is a worm composter in the kitchen where vegetable scraps go. There's a small company store for employees where politically correct paper/trash bag/ cleaning products are sold. Lots of recycling bins exist around the office including a battery recycling bin. No paper products are used at any office parties. My personal favorite office feature is the recycling table, where people bring in items from home that they don't want anymore. etc. Also, there is a tradition that when staff members go to Europe, which is required so they know the Untours products (a nice requirement!), they must bring home chocolate for all.
One of the features of the office now is 25,000 (!!) dolls. The foundation has a lot of equity in a company called Little Souls International (LSI), a sister company of
the famous company, Little Souls. LSI was going under for a variety
of reasons, so we took over the stock and closed the company. Our office looks a bit like the North Pole. It's a daunting task to sell the dolls while running the Foundation. - E.K.