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‘Eye-opening’ Impact Assessment: How Benchmarks Can Boost Social and Business Outcomes
For the last ten years, Acumen has been investing in off-grid energy companies in the developing world. In its new Energy Impact Report, the impact investing nonprofit talked directly to thousands of customers about their experiences - good and bad - with these companies’ energy products. Acumen's Kat Harrison discusses the survey's revealing results.
- Categories
- Energy, Impact Assessment, Investing
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Finance Responds to Climate Change: How ‘Recovery Lending’ Can Help Victims of Weather-Related Disasters
Natural disasters leave U.S. communities reeling – but those impacted generally have an insurance safety net. When climate-related catastrophes strike poorer populations, it is almost impossible to recover fully. In fact, every year natural disasters force 26 million people further into poverty. Stewart McCulloch of VisionFund International details a novel disaster insurance program that leverages big data climate models to support nearly 700,000 families with "recovery lending."
- Categories
- Environment, Impact Assessment
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Why Impact Investing is the Next Big Move for Grameen America
David Gough of Grameen America says philanthropy will always be at the heart of the organization's funding, but the nonprofit saw impact investing as an untapped opportunity to fight gender inequity. In celebrating its 10-year anniversary of supporting female entrepreneurship and financial inclusion in the U.S., the group established its first Social Business Fund. The impact investing vehicle is allowing Grameen America supporters to directly invest in the success of more than 100,000 entrepreneurs and receive a financial return in exchange, writes Gough.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment, Investing, Social Enterprise
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The End of a Debate? India Highlights the Dominance of For-Profit Capital in Impact Investing
Can impact investing be as commercially viable as mainstream investing – or does it work better as a nonprofit model, or as a less-profitable niche in the broader investing space? This question remains widely debated, even as more empirical evidence has demonstrated the commercial success of impact investments. Disha Gandhi of Aavishkaar asserts that the long-running global debate over for-profit vs. nonprofit models in impact investing may be winding down, and India is a key case in point.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment, Investing, Social Enterprise
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Coming of Age: Why Consolidation in the Impact Investing Industry is a Great Thing
With over $114 billion deployed into impact investments in 2017 and the total U.S. market at well above $8 trillion, the sector has gone decisively mainstream. And when that happens, industry consolidation is not far behind. In light of a recent wave of eyebrow-raising mergers and acquisitions, Stephanie Cohn Rupp at Tiedemann Wealth Management – which recently completed a merger of its own – says this trend should spark more excitement than concern.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment, Investing, Social Enterprise
- Tags
- ESG, impact investing
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Is Mobile Money Killing Off the Group Microfinance Model (And Would That Be Such a Bad Thing)?
SAJIDA Foundation, an NGO and microfinance provider in Bangladesh, recently took the bold step of going cashless. But shifting to mobile money meant the end of group meetings – the locus of traditional microcredit for decades. The NGO was betting on clients embracing this new approach, but after the initial rollout, it noted some troubling downsides along with the expected benefits. Ashirul Amin of BFA explores the pros and cons SAJIDA has encountered in its cashless journey, and how it is responding with a hybrid method that blends old and new.
- Categories
- Finance, Impact Assessment
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Seeing Beyond Silos: A More Holistic Approach to Supporting Social Entrepreneurs
If it takes a village to raise a child, then it takes an entire ecosystem to shepherd a social enterprise from inception to scale. But that ecosystem too often is splintered with investors, accelerators and other advisors sorting themselves into silos. Alex Pan and Mark Correnti, with the Miller Center for Social Entrepreneurship, advocate for a "structured collaboration," with accelerators taking the lead as honest brokers.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment, Investing, Social Enterprise
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The Under-Recognized Threat of ‘Ultra-Poverty’ – And How the World Can Tackle It
The world is likely to fall short of Sustainable Development Goal 1 to end poverty in all its forms everywhere by 2030 – unless it addresses the estimated 394 million people living in “ultra-poverty.” Concentrated in 14 countries in Africa and Asia, the ultra-poor have largely been overlooked by the movement to end poverty, receiving a small fraction of official development assistance. The Global State of Ultra Poverty report aims to change that, and Jesse Marsden, Veronica Brown and Aaron Merchen of RESULTS explore strategies that could turn the tide.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment
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