Keystone Custom Homes a Leader in CSR



Panelists discussing Corporate Social Responsiblity included Jeff Rutt, president of Keystone Custom Homes and founder of Hope International. The panel was led by E-town alum and Fulton Bank executive Jim Shreiner, Class of 1973.

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).

Keystone Custom Homes President Jeff Rutt and founder of Hope Internationational joined an esteemed roster of speakers including Muhammed Yunus for Elizabethtown College's Carper Lecture Series on April 4 and 5. Keystone Custom Homes became a member of the S. Dale High Center for Family Business in 2012.
For some companies CSR is a department, an office to be staffed--a cost of doing business in a socially responsible age. For Rutt, CSR is a missional way of life.

He talked about how Hope International, a network of microfinance institutions operating in 16 countries around the world, in a moving PowerPoint presentation with students, administrators, and distinguished campus guests including other High Center members.

A Hope International microloan recipient

Through some early experiences in church-directed mission, Rutt and his family learned that in the world many creative, intelligent people are mired in poverty because they lack access to capital. Microfinance services can make the difference between economic entrapment and the realization of their dreams. HOPE believes that microfinance can be a powerful force in changing the world for the better and that people of God should be called to care for both physical and spiritual needs of others.

The panel offered a truly enlightening perspective on one family's desire to help those in need, how Rutt was inspired by the example of Muhammed Yunus and the Grameen Bank, and how Hope International became not merely a relief agency but an agency to help marginalized people around the world rebuild lives for themselves and their families.