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The Business Roundtable Announcement: How We Can Ensure It’s Part of a Paradigm Shift – and Not Just Window Dressing
Last week members of the Business Roundtable, an organization comprised of CEOs of some of the world’s largest corporations, signed a statement "modernizing its principles on the role of a corporation." They declared that the purpose of a corporation is to create value for employees, suppliers, customers and communities – not just shareholders. At face value, it's a game-changing announcement. Impact investing pioneer Margot Brandenburg explores how to hold these companies accountable to it.
- Categories
- Investing
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Yes, Your Pitch Deck is That Important: Here’s How to Get Investors’ Attention and Raise Your First $100K
Entrepreneurs often have a lot of misconceptions around fundraising when they start their business. And according to Mehak Malik, Investment Associate at Beyond Capital Fund, these misunderstandings can undermine one key element of their success: the all-important pitch deck. She discusses the questions entrepreneurs need to ask themselves before drafting a pitch deck, based on a recent series of entrepreneur workshops from Beyond Capital and ANDE.
- Categories
- Investing, Social Enterprise
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Empowering Female Entrepreneurs: Solutions to Five Key Barriers to Women’s Financial Inclusion
In developing countries, only 59% of women have a bank account – an issue VisionFund is addressing through its Women’s Empowerment Fund. But though the fund has supported thousands of female-led businesses, it has also faced persistent challenges – many of which are unique to women. Johanna Ryan, VisionFund's Global Director of Impact, discusses five obstacles the fund has encountered, and how they've responded.
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EXTENDED: SOCAP19 Summer Special Ends Sept 6: Register Now – And Get $250 Off With NextBillion’s Discount Code
SOCAP19 is coming sooner than you think, and NextBillion is proud to once again serve as a media partner. The conference, convening Oct. 22-25 in San Francisco, is expecting over 3,000 impact investors, entrepreneurs and innovative cross-sector practitioners, and will feature over 150 breakout sessions and 500 speakers. Register by Aug. 30 to get their Summer Special pricing, and use NextBillion's discount code for an additional $250 off.
- Categories
- Investing
- Tags
- impact investing
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‘Financial Innovation’ is no Frankenstein: How Impact Investors and Inclusive Finance Innovators Are Redefining the Term
For many, the words "financial innovation" spark memories of the banking malfeasance that led to the 2008 financial crisis. But as Paul Hailey at responsAbility Investments sees it, financial innovation has come a long way since then. He argues that innovative new investment products don't have to be "a monster lurching towards the village," and explores how they can enable both financial inclusion and investor returns.
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With So Many Financial Instruments Out There – When and How to do Results-Based Financing
The field of results-based financing has taken root, and several new mechanisms have sprouted – from humanitarian impact bonds to outcomes funds. But while development impact bonds and their many variations are getting attention, too many organizations are working backwards to fit them into a particular program or context, write Kate Sturla and Ellen Anderson at IDinsight. They suggest three questions foundations, investors and intermediaries should ask to first diagnose their objectives, then select the right instruments to meet them.
- Categories
- Investing
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If I See One More Post About the Lack of Progress on Impact Metrics, I’m Gonna Lose It
It's a popular sub-genre in media coverage of impact investing: Think-pieces lamenting the sector's lack of progress on impact measurement. But Sara Olsen, Founding Partner and CEO at SVT Group, has had enough of this critique: "We do have the tools to understand the impact of the global capital marketplace, in all its diverse and terrible glory," she argues. And those who don't recognize this are muddying the waters – or worse, giving businesses and investors a good excuse to ignore the many options that exist for measuring their impacts on people and the planet.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment, Investing
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Getting Past Doubt: Finding Better Ways for Multinationals and SMEs to Intersect
Developing countries have become increasingly important to multinational companies, with foreign direct investment often outpacing development aid. Meanwhile, the 400 million micro-, small- and medium-sized enterprises in these countries are facing a wide variety of obstacles to growth. The new Catalyzing SGB Acceleration initiative, launched by TechnoServe and the Argidius Foundation, aims to find common ground between those two worlds. Juan Carlos Thomas and Annie Shoemaker at TechnoServe discuss the new project.
- Categories
- Investing
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