NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Colm Fay

Guest Post: Competing in the Inaugural International Impact Investing Challenge

Ours was among 12 student teams from top business schools in the US/UK competing in the inaugural International Impact Investing Challenge. We were tasked with designing an investment vehicle capable of absorbing $10 million to $50 million with positive social or environmental impact while also delivering competitive returns for investors.

Categories

Health Care, Investing

Tags

impact investing, insurance, William Davidson Institute

Scott Anderson

Join the Twitter Chat With Ashoka, NextBillion on Affordable Housing

NextBillion will be teaming up Ashoka from 3-5 p.m. EST on Wednesday, April 27 to talk about sustainable, affordable housing innovations for low-income consumers. We want to hear your ideas, questions and examples of successful collaborations between entrepreneurs, companies and the public sector in developing affordable housing solutions.

Categories

Uncategorized

Tags

housing

Sarah Conway

From Unite for Sight: Hearing the Pitch

From recycled MP3 players given new life as educational tools to creating health centers at truck stops, to employing women with HIV as craftspeople, one highlight highlight of year’s Unite For Sight Global Health and Innovation Conference was attending social enterprise pitches - ideas in the early implementation or brainstorming stages.

Categories

Education, Health Care, Impact Assessment, Social Enterprise

Tags

skill development

Josiah Filler

19 Days, 6,600 km: ’Ride for Light’ Motorcycle Journey to Illuminate the Philippines

Solar technology-focused social enterprises in Africa and Asia have used many creative marketing/PR strategies to share their products with light deprived communities. Kicking off on April 16, "Ride for Light" riders will travel thousands of miles across the Philippines archipelago on motorcycle to spread the word about the power of solar.

Categories

Energy, Social Enterprise

Tags

rural development, solar

Adeena Schlussel

Ashoka Changemakers: Winners of the Sustainable Urban Housing Competition

Ashoka is in the final stage of its Sustainable Urban Housing Competition. With support from the Rockefeller Foundation, Ashoka has challenged innovators to orchestrate sustainable, safe, transferable and affordable housing solutions for any landscape or culture. Earlier this week, finalists were selected each pocketing $10,000 to seed their plans.

Categories

Education

Tags

housing

Nilima Achwal

Unleash Social Impact: Ashoka’s Globalizer and Skoll World Forum

Felix Oldenburg is challenging the mainstream dialogue on social enterprise. I had an insightful conversation with Felix, Ashoka’s Europe and Germany director, and a speaker at the Skoll World Forum. He, along with Konstanze Frischen and Maria Zapata, organized Ashoka’s first-annual Globalizer program that accelerated Ashoka Fellow enterprises.

Categories

Impact Assessment, Investing, Social Enterprise

Diana Hollmann

Nexthought Monday: Social Impact Bonds? An Innovative Mechanism for Social Change

Cut costs and increase effectiveness of social programs? Any government would probably sign up to a deal that combines both right away! And this is one of the key thoughts behind the Social Impact Bond concept developed and recently piloted by UK-based Social Finance. A closer look at how they work and what they could mean for social impact.

Categories

Finance, Uncategorized

Tags

impact bonds

Scott Anderson

Friday Roundup – 3/18/11: Failure IS An Option, but Don’t Fail At Learning

Failure grown into meme that has built business guru empires and flooded the speaker/seminar circuit. Adam Richardson, a creative director at global innovation firm frog design, advises that we shouldn’t "fetishize" failure, but learn from it. What has our sector learned from our failures and how are we applying them to future projects?

Categories

Education

Tags

failure