NewsFeedNewsFeed

Our Staff Writers and Editors offer insights on the latest news, events, interviews and other happenings from the development through enterprise and base of the pyramid universes

Filter Content By Date OR Region:

Tuesday, May 21, 2013 — No Region Specified

Change.org scores $15M from Omidyar Network to grow the world’s largest petition service

Source: VentureBeat
Popular social petition service Change.org has raised $15 million in new funding — cash that will help it further build up the “world’s largest petition platform.”
TAGS:social impact, technology
Tuesday, April 09, 2013 — South Asia

The “Technology for Impact Accelerator” announces the first batch of 16 startups

Source: Your Story
“Technology for Impact Accelerator” program for business creating social impact is an initiative by CIIE- IIM Ahmedabad and Village Capital. As a part of the first batch, 16 startups have been selected.
TAGS:social impact, startup
Tuesday, January 22, 2013 — South Asia

TOI Social Impact Awards: They battled the odds to even the chances

Source: The Times of India
"I have some questions before we begin. Can we all turn to page 140 of the dossier provided to the jury?" These words, spoken by National Advisory Council member and Rajya Sabha MP Anu Aga, and received with approving nods by the other jury members, immediately made one thing clear. The jury had done its homework, wading through 300 pages of expert assessments, field reports and background information on the 41 candidates shortlisted for the second Times of India Social Impact Awards in association with JP Morgan.
TAGS:social impact
Wednesday, January 02, 2013 — No Region Specified

Charitable foundations look towards impact investing

Source: Marketplace
Pierre Omidyar wanted to take the fortune he earned from his company, eBay, and become a philanthropist. So he started a traditional foundation for giving out grants. He called it the Omidyar Family Foundation.
TAGS:impact investing, Philanthropy, social impact
Thursday, December 27, 2012 — South Asia

Tata launches 'Social Enterprise Challenge'

Source: New York Daily News
Mumbai, Dec 27 — Aiming to find the country's most promising social enterprises, the Tata Group has launched the 'Tata Social Enterprise Challenge' in association with the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta (IIMC), a company statement said here Thursday.
TAGS:events and competitions, social enterprise, social impact
Tuesday, December 18, 2012 — No Region Specified

Billionaire Jeff Skoll's Participant Media Details Plans To Launch Its Own Cable Channel

Source: Forbes
Jeff Skoll, the former eBay executive who is dedicated to solving the world’s big problems, has just taken a step to expand his movie company Participant Media – the company behind An Inconvenient Truth, Food Inc. and The Help — into cable TV.
TAGS:social impact
Monday, December 03, 2012 — South Asia

What Is eBay’s Omidyar Doing on Delhi’s MedTech Row?

Source: New York Times
Pierre Omidyar is best known as the founder of the online auction company e-Bay, which he grew from an “odd little Web site” to one of Web commerce’s biggest and longest-lasting success stories.
TAGS:impact investing, Philanthropy, social impact, venture capital
Thursday, November 29, 2012 — No Region Specified

Fantino’s private-sector foreign aid: It can work, if he gets the details right

Source: The Globe and Mail
The world’s poorest, sacrificed to the whims of the almighty market. Charities and non-governmental organizations carrying the water for profitable mining companies. Profits before people. These are just some of the critiques levelled against the federal government’s foreign-aid pivot, recently formalized in an address by new International Co-operation Minister Julian Fantino.
TAGS:poverty alleviation, social impact
Monday, November 26, 2012 — No Region Specified

Jewelry Designed to Disarm

Source: The New York Times
NEW YORK — As icons go, few things communicate global menace more effectively than the stark silhouette of an AK-47. Designed more than six decades ago by Mikhail Kalashnikov, a former Soviet tank commander, the assault rifle boasts the dubious distinction of being the most abundant and reliable killing device in history.
TAGS:social enterprise, social impact
Monday, November 26, 2012 — No Region Specified

Confidence in social impact claims 'shockingly low'

Source: The Guardian
Demonstrable social impact is often overlooked by social investors, says leading social enterprise academic
TAGS:impact investing, measurement, metrics, social impact
Thursday, November 08, 2012 — No Region Specified

Mastercard Inc : The SEEP Network Partners with MasterCard to Promote Innovative Uses of Technology

Source: 4-Traders
Washington, DC, November 7, 2012 - The SEEP Network's two-day 2012 Annual Conference titled, "Building Inclusive Markets: Impact through Financial and Enterprise Solutions" kicks off on Wednesday, November 7 in Arlington, VA.
TAGS:corporate engagement, financial inclusion, social impact, technology
Thursday, November 08, 2012 — No Region Specified

RBC announces $1 million donation to MaRS Centre for Impact Investing

Source: Sacramento Bee
TORONTO, Nov. 8, 2012 /CNW/ - RBC today announced a historic, $1 million, five-year commitment to support the MaRS Centre for Impact Investing. With this donation, RBC becomes a founding partner of the Centre, launched in late 2011 to increase awareness of social finance and direct new capital and talent to tackle social and environmental problems in Canada.
TAGS:corporate engagement, impact investing, social impact
Wednesday, November 07, 2012 — South Asia

Lok Capital is re-inventing strategy for social impact

Source: Business Standard
Rajiv B Lall, 55, managing director and chief executive officer of Infrastructure Development Finance Company talks unlike his peers in glamorous investment banking and private equity business despite spending over thirty years with institutions such as Warburg Pincus, Morgan Stanley and Asian Development Bank.
TAGS:impact investing, social impact, venture capital
Wednesday, October 24, 2012 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Meet The Man Who’s Shaping Africa’s Future

Source: Ventures Africa
VENTURES AFRICA – Just like the great American civil right activist Martin Luther King Jnr. had a dream of an equal social existence, so did Ghanaian-born entrepreneur, Fred Swaniker, dream to build a Pan-African school that will position the new generation of African youth towards prosperity in future years. His mission was to give the African child a network of successful peers to tap for job opportunities, mentoring and career guidance.
TAGS:education, leadership, Microfinance, social impact
Thursday, October 18, 2012 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Handheld Poverty Fighters: Building the Killer Apps of Global Prosperity

Source: GOOD
Among many in the development space, connective technologies are either the cheat code to global prosperity or a false prophet obscuring the real challenges effecting the world’s poor. Officials as high-ranking as Secretary Hillary Clinton have called the spread of cheap cell phones and laptops a driving force against poverty even as many of their most promising applications are failing to deliver on scale.
TAGS:mobile applications, poverty alleviation, social impact
Thursday, October 11, 2012 — Europe & Eurasia

GlaxoSmithKline opens door on data in bid to aid discovery of medicines

Source: The Guardian
British drugs company releases findings of clinical trials and announces new effort to find tropical disease cures
TAGS:health care, pharmaceutical industry, research, social impact
Thursday, October 11, 2012 — No Region Specified

Can A Motivated Group Of People Change The Way Markets Work For The Better?

Source: Fast Company
Criterion Ventures is trying to rebrand the idea of systems change, and change a few major systems--like the rules that govern the entire economy--along the way.
TAGS:conferences, impact investing, social impact
Wednesday, October 10, 2012 — Latin America

How Entrepreneurs Can Fight Drug Traffickers

Source: Forbes
There’s nothing like attending the heady, exhilarating Clinton Global Initiative to get me out of the operational trenches of entrepreneurship for social change. But this year, I was distracted by a conversation taking place just down the street at the UN General Assembly—on drug trafficking.
TAGS:agribusiness, social impact
Wednesday, October 10, 2012 — Asia Pacific

Oxfam launches fund to make 'impact investments' in the developing world

Source: Third Sector
The overseas aid charity is linking up with the City of London Corporation and Symbiotics to help small and medium-sized enterprises, with the first investment in Mongolia
TAGS:impact investing, investment fund, Microfinance, social impact
Monday, October 08, 2012 — Asia Pacific

Entrepreneur brings color to the desert

Source: China Daily
A man-made oasis in China's seventh biggest desert, Kubuqi, on the southern bank of the Yellow River, has been the backdrop for several international environmental events this year.
TAGS:entrepreneurship, social impact, sustainability
Monday, October 08, 2012 — No Region Specified

Making the Case for Impact Sourcing

Source: Huffington Post
Last week, B Corporation, a network of socially responsible "for-benefit" businesses, announced its plans to scale internationally at the Clinton Global Initiative. Many of these businesses are supported by impact investors, a group of double- and triple-bottom-line funders that received little attention until the Rockefeller Foundation launched a major impact investing initiative in 2008.
TAGS:impact investing, social impact
Tuesday, September 18, 2012 — No Region Specified

Calling All Social Entrepreneurs

Source: Forbes
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in cooperation with the United Nations Foundation, Mashable, UNDP, 92Y and Ericsson are hosting the Social Good Summit in New York City this weekend. Even if you can’t go to New York, you can participate.
TAGS:Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, conferences, social entrepreneur, social impact
Monday, September 17, 2012 — South Asia

ISB competition for social entrepreneurship ideas

Source: The Hindu Business Line
Do you have an idea that has a potential to make a social impact? The Indian School of Business (ISB) has announced iDiya, a nationwide idea competition for working professionals who are interested in starting ventures with a potential to create a positive impact on society.
TAGS:events and competitions, social entrepreneur, social impact
Thursday, September 13, 2012 — South Asia

$4 billion planned for investment in social enterprise in 2012: Report

Source: The Economic Times
According to a global impact investment market study by JP Morgan, and the Global Impact Investment Network (GIIN), investors see the social enterprise as a market 'in its infancy and growing' with almost $ 4 billion planned for investment in 2012. Over the last eight years $ 600 million has been invested in social enterprises in India itself. The Monitor Institute estimates that over the next 5 - 10 years impact investments will grow to 1 percent of global assets under management, emerging as a new asset class.
TAGS:impact investing, investment fund, small and medium enterprises, social enterprise, social impact
Monday, September 10, 2012 — No Region Specified

34 Places To Find That New Job: Social Innovators Edition

Source: Forbes
Other than the beloved Idealist.org, where can someone looking for an impactful or innovative job begin their search? For all those looking to enter or shift within the social innovation space, however you define it, optimizing communities and networking seem to be predominant. Here’s a list of sites to bookmark or pass on to a friend on the hunt right now.
TAGS:jobs, NextBillion.net, social impact
Wednesday, September 05, 2012 — No Region Specified

100 Free Career Videos for Milennials

Source: iOnPoverty
San Francisco (September 5, 2012) - The online knowledge network iOnPoverty.tv today announced that its entire 2012 video collection is now online and free to students, unemployed graduates and young professionals seeking jobs and careers in economic opportunity and justice work.
TAGS:social impact
Monday, August 27, 2012 — Sub-Saharan Africa

Africa innovations: 15 ideas helping to transform a continent

Source: The Guardian
A mobile phone database for dairy farmers and a strain of sweet potato that can help fight child blindness. These are just two of the imaginative new ideas that are tackling Africa's old problems
TAGS:agribusiness, social impact
Wednesday, August 22, 2012 — No Region Specified

Tackling food waste through a social enterprise model

Source: The Guardian
The founder of social enterprise Rubies in the Rubble, proves that you can run a company with a business head and a charitable heart
TAGS:nutrition, social enterprise, social impact
Wednesday, August 08, 2012 — No Region Specified

Impact Engine Announces Inaugural Class of 2012

Source: The Impact Engine
CHICAGO, August 8, 2012 — Impact Engine, a new accelerator that supports for-profit businesses trying to make the world a better place, welcomes eight early stage companies into the program’s first-ever class. From empowering women in rural India to improving education in the United States to providing renewable energy to the people of Africa, the 2012 class includes a diverse group of entrepreneurs tackling both domestic and global challenges.
TAGS:social entrepreneur, social impact
Thursday, August 02, 2012 — No Region Specified

Goldman Sachs In Jail: Why Is Big Money Moving Into Social Impact Bonds?

Source: International Business Times
The so-called "social-impact bond" investment at Rikers Island prison, the first of its kind for an American city, means any potential return for Goldman hinges on the success of a program that will educate, train and counsel inmates aged between 16 and 18.
TAGS:impact investing, social impact
Wednesday, July 11, 2012 — North Africa and Near East

Investing for social impact reaps more than financial returns, says Al Tamimi

Source: CPI Financial
For Al Tamimi Investments (ATI), channelling its private capital for social benefit is reaping more than financial returns for its businesses. ATI was founded in 2006 by Emirati business leader Essam Al Tamimi and Rachael Wunsch, an accomplished venture capitalist from Australia. Using personal capital gained from the success of his law firm Al Tamimi & Company, ATI sought to invest in businesses that would enrich and bring value to the UAE community.
TAGS:impact investing, social impact
Monday, June 25, 2012 — No Region Specified

Making the market a force for good

Source: The Guardian
When women in Haiti added fruit flavouring to purified water and sold it to their peers, an impromptu community business was born. While the main aim was a health-related one – the women used purifying sachets distributed after the 2010 earthquake to clean the water – the unforeseen knock-on effect involved women educating their peers about not drinking contaminated water and running their own mini-enterprise.
TAGS:social entrepreneur, social impact
Monday, June 04, 2012 — No Region Specified

Catchafire matches talented volunteers with opportunities to serve

Source: Christian Science Monitor
Tom D’Eri needed some help. In September of last year, he co-founded a small social enterprise that helps people with autism find employment. He quickly realized that he needed some outside assistance with things like branding and website development, topics that he didn’t have much experience with himself.
TAGS:social impact
Friday, June 01, 2012 — No Region Specified

How Financial Innovation Can Save the World

Source: The Atlantic
Financial innovation got a bad rep in the financial crisis. But inside the well-barricaded Federal Reserve Bank in downtown San Francisco last month, the financial engineers were at it again.
TAGS:impact investing, social impact
Tuesday, May 29, 2012 — Europe & Eurasia

What Exactly Is Social Entrepreneurship?

Source: Forbes
We’re talking about success and social value. Today many people lump this in a special category: social entrepreneurship. We’re not sure exactly what that is, so we’re interested in learning more. As it turns out, so were two Tuck class of 2013 students, Christopher Halstedt and Brad Callow. This past spring they did an independent study Senior Associate Dean Bob Hansen and Gregg on exactly this topic. They set out to see if they could understand what exactly is social entrepreneurship and how it creates social value. Here are some excerpts from what they found:
TAGS:social entrepreneur, social impact
Tuesday, April 24, 2012 — No Region Specified

Transformational Entrepreneurship: Where Technology Meets Societal Impact

Source: HBR Blog Network
The slow decline of industrial manufacturing in developed nations and recent failures of financial capitalism across the globe have sent us searching for a new model of economic growth. I see the two movements of Technology Entrepreneurship and Social Entrepreneurship beginning to converge into a promising solution.
TAGS:social enterprise, social impact, technology
Tuesday, April 24, 2012 — Latin America

B Corps Go Global: Sistema B Certifies South American Social Enterprise

Source: GOOD
Last fall, a small group of social entrepreneurs from South America met to discuss how to foster more social enterprise in the region and create more bang for the buck at existing enterprise. The result was Sistema B, the first effort to adapt the American system of B Corporations—which ease operations for companies that combine profit and social good—to a foreign setting.
TAGS:business development, social enterprise, social impact
Friday, April 20, 2012 — No Region Specified

Rethinking the Role of Capital Markets in Enabling Social Progress

Source: Forbes
Earlier this week at theGlobal Philanthropy Forum, Tracy Palandjian, CEO of Social Finance, Inc., served on a panel discussion around the challenges and opportunities of impact investing. In the below interview with Tracy, we discussed her career trajectory, the first-ever social impact bond in the United Kingdom and its potential to be replicated in the United States, and much more.
TAGS:financial inclusion, impact investing, social impact
Friday, April 13, 2012 — South Asia

Perspective: Poverty, Health And Forced Eviction In The Slums Of Bangladesh

Source: CommonHealth
On April 4, one of the largest forceful slum evictions in Bangladesh’s history took place in Dhaka’s Korail bustee. Households, schools and shops within twenty meters of the road were bulldozed, with approximately 3,500 individuals affected.
TAGS:health care, Poverty, social impact
Friday, April 06, 2012 — No Region Specified

Men Start Businesses for the Money: Women for the Social Value

Source: ScienceDaily
A study of the sexes reveals that when it comes to starting a business, women are more likely than men to consider individual responsibility and use business as a vehicle for social and environmental change.
TAGS:entrepreneurship, social impact, startup
Tuesday, April 03, 2012 — Latin America

In Chile’s Slums, A Lesson in How to Make Apps for Social Good

Source: The Washington Post
How many of the hundreds of thousands of mobile phone applications seek to do truly great things, such as lift people out of poverty or improve health care for the poor?
TAGS:Base of the Pyramid, mobile applications, social impact
Wednesday, March 21, 2012 — North Africa and Near East

GroFin Expands Pool of SME Funding to $323 million, Enters Three New Countries

Source: Press Release
GroFin, the multinational pioneer of growth finance working to create real impact through the support of small and medium businesses, has announced a growth in funds under management from $260 million to $323 million.
TAGS:entrepreneurship, financial inclusion, investment fund, small and medium enterprises, social impact
Wednesday, March 21, 2012 — South Asia

A Changing Innovation Landscape

Source: livemint.com
At a time when the global economy continues to be in a state of flux and the emerging economies are also beginning to feel the impact of this uncertainty, my mind races to the proverbial thought of viewing the glass as half empty or half full. I choose the latter.
TAGS:entrepreneurship, social impact
Tuesday, March 20, 2012 — South Asia

Symbiosis Project to Help Light Up Village Homes

Source: The Times of India
PUNE: Students from the Social Entrepreneurship and Consulting Cell of Symbiosis Institute of Business Management ( SIBM) have come up with a project to provide low-cost lighting units to rural households without electricity.
TAGS:renewable energy, rural development, social impact
Friday, March 16, 2012 — No Region Specified

Need Blind: Vision Spring and Warby Parker Shake Up Eyewear With Impact

Source: GOOD
Social enterprises Warby Parker and VisionSpring are finding innovative ways to bring glasses to people who can’t afford huge markups. VisionSpring, a nonprofit social enterprise, focuses on selling low-cost glasses to people earning between $1 and $4 per day. Warby Parker, a for-profit B-Corp, sells affordable eyewear in the domestic market while donating a pair of frames to VisionSpring for each pair it sells.
TAGS:consumer products, public health, social enterprise, social impact
Monday, March 12, 2012 — South Asia

Interest-free Microfinance Hope for Poor Muslims

Source: The Times of India
Making headlines in the recent past for crushing interest rates claiming lives of debtors, microfinance is now being offered with a more humane approach. The Human Welfare Foundation will now offer loans in the form of interest-free microfinance to the poor across the country including Hyderabad, said vice president of Jamat-e-Islami Hind Prof K A Siddique Hassan here on Saturday.
TAGS:Base of the Pyramid, Microfinance, social impact
Thursday, March 08, 2012 — No Region Specified

The Time to Empower Women is Now

Source: devex
The world celebrates the 101st International Women’s Day on March 8. But how have women’s empowerment and gender equality improved over the past years? Certainly, there have been advancements. The United States, for instance, has been able to incorporate gender issues in its first Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review, and its Feed the Future and Global Health Initiative foreign aid programs.
TAGS:social impact
Wednesday, March 07, 2012 — No Region Specified

B Lab Releases First 'Best for the World' List of Businesses Creating Most Overall Positive Social and Environmental Impact

Source: CSRwire
'Best for the World' businesses score 50% higher than nearly 2,000 other sustainable businesses in most comprehensive assessment of overall corporate impact
TAGS:corporate social responsibility, Impact Assessment, social impact
Tuesday, March 06, 2012 — No Region Specified

A Fall to Cheer

Source: The Economist
For the first time ever, the number of poor people is declining everywhere
TAGS:poverty alleviation, social impact
Tuesday, March 06, 2012 — No Region Specified

Why the Global Economy Needs Businesses to Invest in Women

Source: The Daily Beast
Businesses are starting to understand what development experts have long known: investing in women pays dividends. Women are more likely than men to put their income back into their communities, driving illiteracy and mortality rates down and GDP up.
TAGS:Base of the Pyramid, social impact
Tuesday, March 06, 2012 — No Region Specified

UN Meets Millennium Development Goal on Drinking Water

Source: BBC
The Millennium Development Goal for access to clean water has been reached, ahead of the target date of 2015.
TAGS:social impact, water
Friday, March 02, 2012 — No Region Specified

Now for some good news: Two books argue that the future is brighter than we think

Source: The Economist
The lab-on-a-chip (LOC) is a small device with a huge potential. It can run dozens of diagnostic tests on human DNA in a few minutes. Give the device a gob of spit or a drop of blood and it will tell you whether or not you are sick without any need to send your DNA to a laboratory. In poor countries LOCs could offer diagnostics to millions who lack access to expensive laboratories. In the rich world they may curb rising medical costs.
TAGS:public health, social impact, technology
Friday, February 17, 2012 — Sub-Saharan Africa

The Quiet Revolution in Social Impact

Source: PandoDaily
There are currently 30 million African migrants who have left their home countries to find work elsewhere. They support more than 300 million people in their home countries, remitting essential food and goods, and in aggregate represent more than $10b in annual economic activity. This is an economy without an infrastructure, however, relying on informal channels and bribes to function. South African entrepreneur Suzana Moreira is working to change that. Her startup moWozauses SMS to help African migrants order, pay for, and select a place for parcel pickup.
TAGS:Base of the Pyramid, mobile applications, social impact, startup
Wednesday, February 15, 2012 — South Asia

Social Innovators Seek to Balance Economic Sustainability and Impact

Source: Business Standard
Bridging the digital-divide in India has long been a cherished dream. While much is yet to happen, IT industry body Nasscom has taken initial steps to identify business models that can change the access of technology at the bottom of the pyramid. This year too, Nasscom presented awards to six businesses that are trying to bring social innovation. The awards showcase the impact and learnings from the ideas of winners that have gained shape, acceptance and success.
TAGS:health care, rural, skill development, social enterprise, social impact
Friday, February 10, 2012 — South Asia

Students Learn a Trade in Afghanistan Hotspot

Source: PBS
Mercy Corps is working in southern Afghanistan to connect craftsmen with their countrymen and women so they can make a living and better their lives.
TAGS:NGO, rural development, skill development, social impact
Tuesday, February 07, 2012 — Latin America

Empowering the Haitian People

Source: UVU Review
Sustain Haiti is a non-denominational, independent group of Haitians, development specialists, students, social entrepreneurs, and concerned citizens based in Provo, UT. It was created and began sending volunteers and aid to the country of Haiti after a 7.0 earthquake rocked the country in January of 2010.
TAGS:entrepreneurship, social enterprise, social impact, sustainability
Monday, February 06, 2012 — South Asia

IDA to Help Improve Irrigation System in Pakistan

Source: devex
The World Bank’s concessional lending arm is providing $250 million to help improve water and agricultural productivity in the Pakistani province of Punjab.
TAGS:agribusiness, social impact, water

  • Managing Partners

    William Davidson Institute

  • Sponsoring Partner

    Citi Foundation

  • Content Partners

    Ashoka

  • Content Partners

    IADB

  • Content Partners

    MercyCorps
Subscribe to Our E-Newsletter

Email:  
For Email Marketing you can trust

Found an Article we're Missing?Found an Article we're Missing?

Submit An Article

TrendingTrending

Impact Investing: Chinese Investors’ National Solution

The Wall Street Journal (China)

Asian Innovation: Frugal Ideas Are Spreading from East to West

The Economist

How the Developing World is Using Cellphone Technology to Change Lives

thestar.com

Impact Investing: How One Foundation Empowers Social Entrepreneurs

Mashable

In Chile’s Slums, A Lesson in How to Make Apps for Social Good

The Washington Post

'Social Entrepreneur of the Year' India 2012 Awards is Open for Entries

afaqs!

100 Women Who Matter: Entrepreneurs Roundtable

Newsweek Pakistan

Social MediaSocial Media

Facebook Twitter

Story Snapshot

CLOSE