Nobel Laureate Muhammad Yunus, pioneer of the microfinance industry that gives tiny loans to poor people, will give the keynote address at a UNH forum next month.

The Durham campus of the University of New Hampshire will host a Social Business and Microfinance Forum and the Social Business Innovation Challenge.

Yunus, best known for founding the Grameen Bank, a community development bank in his native Bangladesh that has spurred the creation of a multi-billion-dollar microfinance industry, will give the keynote address “Social Business – The New Kind of Capitalism That Serves Humanity’s Most Pressing Needs.” Yunus has received the Nobel Peace Prize (2006), the Presidential Medal of Freedom (2009) and the Congressional Gold Medal (2013).

The Social Business Innovation Challenge asks college students, community members and social entrepreneurs from across the state to find business-oriented solutions to social and environmental issues at the state, national or global level. Social businesses aim to be market-based and fund operations and growth through earned revenues rather than donations, and have a primary social, rather than financial, objective.

The Social Business Innovation Challenge has two tracks, one for current or aspiring New Hampshire social entrepreneurs and community members and one for current students enrolled at a New Hampshire college or university, as well as summer 2013 graduates. Winners in each track will receive cash prizes to help fund their ideas, as well as the chance to meet Yunus.

Part of the UNH President’s Distinguished Speakers Series, the events are being hosted by UNH and organized by the Peter T. Paul College of Business and Economics and the Carsey Institute, both at UNH.

The registration deadline for both tracks is Sept. 13. Final submissions are due Sept. 20. For more information or to enter, visit www.unh.edu/social
business/social-business-innovation-challenge.

The Sept. 30 events are free and open to the public and begin at 8 a.m. with the final round of the Social Business Innovation Challenge in the Piscataqua and Squamscott rooms at UNH Holloway Commons.

Yunus’ keynote address and the presentation
of awards begin at 10 a.m. in the Granite State Room of the Memorial Union Building. Registration is required because of limited seating capacity. Register at www.unh.edu/socialbusiness/agenda-registration.

Before the event, Net Impact UNH, a student organization that equips individuals to use the power of business to create a more socially and environmentally sustainable world, will host a showing of “Bonsai People: The Vision of Muhammad Yunus” Tuesday, Sept. 10, in the Memorial Union Building Theater II. The movie starts at 6:30 p.m. and is free and open to the public.

After the movie, Net Impact UNH will host a discussion about social business at UNH and a brainstorming workshop for those competing in the social innovation challenge. The workshop is one of several planned to assist competitors.

For more information on the workshops, visit www.unh.edu/socialbusiness .

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