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Climbing the Tech Adoption Mountain: Seven Ways Nonprofits and Social Enterprises Can Leverage Technology for Greater Social Impact
Nonprofits and for-profit social enterprises now benefit from a vast array of technological innovations – but they often struggle to implement them. Devon Ferreira at Originate shares insights from some of the leading minds in the nonprofit and social enterprise world, about how impact-focused organizations can adapt to the challenges – and leverage the opportunities – of new technologies.
- Categories
- Social Enterprise, Technology
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Philanthropy is Shortchanging Climate Change: Here Are Three Ways It Can Boost Its Impact
Climate change is a hot topic in global development, but unfortunately, philanthropy hasn’t followed suit. Despite some notable gifts, climate lags behind other issues when it comes to charitable giving — less than 2% of philanthropic dollars went to climate-related issues in 2015. Nicole Systrom at Sutro Energy Group discusses the reasons for this inertia, and how philanthropists and foundations can turn things around.
- Categories
- Environment, Technology
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‘Are We There Yet?’: How to Deal with Delays – And Other Challenges – In Acquiring Financial Transaction Data
“Are we there yet?” It’s a familiar refrain to any parent who has taken a child on a long journey – and it's also a common dilemma for programs that promote data-driven decision-making in financial inclusion. As Karen Kühlcke at insight2impact explains, requests for financial transaction data from external organizations can involve delays of several months, even as the partner confidently claims that “the data is arriving soon.” She explores how to manage this challenge to gain faster data access.
- Categories
- Finance, Technology
- Tags
- data, financial inclusion
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Digital Platforms for ‘Gig Economy’ Workers: An Intriguing Model Gains Traction in Africa
The government of Senegal has been working diligently to foster high-tech innovation in its economy – but there's one area in particular need of a digital upgrade. Researchers Jessica Wallach and Jill Lagos Shemin explore why the greatest potential impact of the digital revolution in Senegal may involve helping informal workers in the "gig economy" leverage digital platforms to find work.
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- Technology
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Nobody Reads Privacy Policies: Why We Need to Go Beyond Consent to Ensure Data Privacy
We all “say” we read the privacy policies when we agree to the terms and conditions on websites and apps - but up to 97% of people don't actually read them. And even if we read them, few of us can understand the legalese. Now that the age of Big Data has reached emerging markets, and digital tech makes obtaining and monetizing user data easier than ever before, this lack of data privacy is a growing concern. David Medine and Gayatri Murthy at CGAP explore the problem – and some innovative tools that can help protect the world’s newest and most vulnerable digital consumers.
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- Finance, Technology
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Do Surveys Fall Short? Solving the Challenge of Predicting Mini-Grid Energy Usage in Africa
Half of Africa’s population is living without electricity, and mini-grids could connect at least 100 million of these 600 million people. But mini-grid developers struggle to profitably serve these potential customers, due in part to the difficulty of accurately forecasting their electricity demand. Analysts at CrossBoundary explore why this process is so complex and prone to inaccuracy, why surveying customers is often ineffective – and what can be done about it.
- Categories
- Energy, Technology
- Tags
- data, energy access, off-grid energy, research
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The Tech Revolution in Financial Inclusion is Excluding Last-Mile Customers: Here are Four Ways to Reach Them
The world is experiencing a surge in internet access, with almost 300 million new users in 2019 – and this growth is happening especially in developing countries. But in many communities, this access is unreliable and unevenly distributed, say Rodrigo de Reyes and Mauricio Romero at Fundación Capital – and this has serious repercussions for digital and financial inclusion. They explore four key ways to deal with this challenge when serving last-mile customers.
- Categories
- Finance, Technology
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From Heritage to Habit: Why Digital Remittances Languish in Some Cultures But Surge in Others
Thirty years after their introduction, digital remittances have failed to take off. Some 90% of remittances still begin as cash and end as cash - even when banks are the intermediary. Lack of trust, access and interoperability - to name just a few challenges - are keeping lower-income people tied to costlier cash transfers. However, remittance providers and related fintech entities are exploring many new avenues to encourage recipients to keep remittances in the digital ecosystem and possibly use them for other financial products, writes Steven Davidson with Mondato.
- Categories
- Finance, Technology
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