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Beyond ‘Evil Capitalists vs. Righteous Social Workers’: Innovating Solutions with Integrative Thinking
After working in Silicon Valley and Wall Street – in industries famous for their single-minded pursuit of profit – Alice Mann looked forward to making an impact in the social sector. But she encountered organizations that lacked the funding to be effective on a large scale – and that shared a blind spot when it came to the value of financial sustainability. The author of "Future First," Mann shares three examples of social sector leaders who have shifted their thinking to address global problems in profitable ways.
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- Finance, Investing, Social Enterprise
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It’s Time to Measure the Effectiveness of Investing in Global Goals
Climate change is a defining issue of our time, and the global financial community has responded with a series of investing frameworks, stock exchanges and other activities to encourage private investment in climate change-focused initiatives. Despite these efforts, evidence suggests we are still off track to hit global targets. William Burckart and Steve Lydenberg of The Investment Integration Project discuss their new report, which advocates a new paradigm for measuring the effectiveness of investing in SDGs – and uses climate change investment to illustrate how this approach could work.
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- Energy, Environment, Impact Assessment, Investing
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Tackling Poverty Close to Home: Why Acumen is Boosting Financial Health in the U.S.
More than 40 million Americans live below the poverty line, and a majority live paycheck to paycheck. That's why, after nearly two decades and over $110 million of impact investments in Africa, Asia and Latin America, Acumen has expanded its focus to include the United States. Amon Anderson and Sarah Willis discuss how Acumen America, through its financial inclusion portfolio supported by MetLife Foundation, aims to build a future where low-income Americans enjoy stability, protection and prosperity.
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- Finance, Investing, Social Enterprise, Technology
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On Pioneering Capital, Mentorship and Accelerators: It Turns Out You Can Do (A Lot) More With Less
Less than 3 percent of impact investment funds made their way to early-stage ventures in 2017. Sachi Shenoy and Nathan Byrd of Upaya Social Ventures believe the impact investing sector must do better. After several years of investing pioneer capital in social enterprises, they offer several solutions that take advantage of a "less is more" philosophy.
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- Impact Assessment, Investing, Social Enterprise
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Sick of Fundraising? This Tool Makes it Easier for Social Entrepreneurs to Find Opportunities
Fundraising. Just about every social entrepreneur loathes it. The drudgery of seeking out the right partner, in the right sector, at just the right time is a key reason why. Sweta Govani details the Global Innovation Exchange, a new type of technology platform that's being launched this week to help social entrepreneurs cut down on the grunt work and fundraise more effectively.
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- Finance, Investing, Social Enterprise, Technology
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Four Steps to Avoid Dead-End Impact Investing Leads
Dead-end leads are frustrating for both entrepreneurs and investors. They involve wasted time and resources, disappointment, and the erosion of relationships – and sometimes the exchange of capital that's a poor fit for the entrepreneur’s business. To prevent these issues, the Center for the Advancement of Social Entrepreneurship (CASE) has created an online toolkit to help impact entrepreneurs identify their top investor targets. Kimberly Langsam and Cathy Clark at CASE summarize the simple four-step process – and CASE will host a free online demo with more information on March 13 and 19.
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- Impact Assessment, Investing
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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.
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- Energy, Impact Assessment, Investing
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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