Ideas we should steal: Reducing Poverty—Together

In 1995, Paul Born was running a large nonprofit in Ontario, Canada, tasked with trying to help people in the region who were poor. By most measures, it was a resounding success: Community Opportunities Development Association had helped start 1,200 small businesses with previously unemployed people, 85 percent of which were successful; it owned a bank that offered loans and accounts that helped raise the fortunes of people who were poor; found jobs for folks, and assisted children. “We did everything right,” Born recalls.

The organization was so successful, in fact, that the United Nations declared it to have one of the best practices in the world, and sent a delegation to Canada to give Born and his colleagues an award.