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Housing Series: The Critical Shift Toward Asset Building
For over two decades, the partnership between the Citi Foundation and Habitat for Humanity International relied heavily on a "one house, one family," volunteer house-building model. But a shift to a strategy that increases the supply of financial products and services that accelerate financial inclusion is urgently needed.
- Categories
- Finance, Uncategorized
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Housing Series: The Case for Bundling Housing Finance With Housing Support Services
Studies suggest that between 20 to 30 percent of microfinance institution (MFI) clients use portions of their small business start-up or production loans for housing improvements. While MFIs see this as "leakage" for non-productive activities, "productive housing" should be viewed as both a livelihood strategy as well as asset creation.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
- Tags
- housing, microfinance
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Guest Post: Is it Immoral to Earn Attractive Profits from Poor Customers?
Should we crafting a be a business system that enhances the livelihoods of poor people without making a profit for outside investors? Or should it make a profit for investors as well as the poor people who are served by it? To me the answer is obvious.
- Categories
- Social Enterprise
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What the 1 Percent (of Capital Markets) Could Do for Impact Investing
How can we unlock new sources of capital from retail investment to ensure impact investment opportunities aren?t just for the wealthy? A new book discusses ?widening the doorway? to create a greater pool of private capital for impact. Meanwhile investment group TriLinc is launching a $1.25 billion fund for ?mainstreet? investors.
- Categories
- Social Enterprise
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Housing Series: The Case for Housing Support Services
Access to finance and secure tenure has been shown to be the most effective catalysts for self-help incremental housing improvements. But while they are essential, even together, they are not sufficient to improve the living conditions for many of the world’s low-income populations.
- Categories
- Finance
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The Beauty of Bricks and Mortar: Low-cost Housing as a Foundation for Impact
At Acumen Fund, we feel it is high time for the dynamic to change - for the social enterprise sector to recognize the need to catalyze and support affordable housing across emerging markets. But we know there are forces working against us that cause housing to be treated like the forgotten stepchild of the social enterprise sector.
- Categories
- Investing
- Tags
- housing, impact investing
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Where Free, Profitable, Impact and Scale Intersect: Insights From the Story of Aravind
Aravind Eye Care is a self-sustaining and profitable organization that treats most of its patients for free or at a deeply subsidized rate. A new book, "Infinite Vision," provides insights into the man who put Aravind into motion, and chronicles the strategic decisions, growing pains, innovations and efficiencies behind this BoP success story.
- Categories
- Health Care, Social Enterprise
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From Chile, Building Social Entrepreneurship in a ’Space of Spaces’
The second Social Entrepreneurship Month 2011 (MES2011): "Social Innovation + Education" launched in Chile last month, and continues through this week. MES Co-Founder Gianncarlo Dur?n told NextBillion in Spanish that social entrepreneurship concepts "are coming to Chile but with "great intensity."
- Categories
- Social Enterprise
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