-
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
-
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
-
Guest Post: What Aid Agencies Can do to Boost Social Enterprise
Aid agencies have the capacity to nurture this growing field into a powerful set of new partners in their efforts to rid the world of poverty. But if not handled with care, the growing interest in social enterprise may overwhelm a fragile, nascent network still finding its voice. Five ways aid agencies can constructively engage social enterprise.
- Categories
- Social Enterprise
-
Why Global Social Enterprise Needs to Become Its Own Asset Class
Ashoka Fellow David Green makes the case that in order for the global social enterprise sector to truly grow, it must become its own asset class. That means taking the form of a pro-profit social entity with the right type of governance to insure fidelity to a social mission, while being supported with the right kind of financing.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment, Social Enterprise
-
Embracing Failure at the Harvard Social Enterprise Conference
In business, failure is part of the game, but this reality is often taboo in the social sector. At Root Cause, Phil Buchanan of Tactical Philanthropy provided his thoughts on the importance of "learning from history" from successful philanthropic cases.
- Categories
- Social Enterprise
- Tags
- failure, social enterprise
-
Guest Post: Listening to the Voices of Experience
Acumen Fund created the Global Fellows Program because we wanted to build a core group of leaders from across the globe who not only had the intellect, passion and business skills, but also the experience of serving low-income consumers in some of the most challenging environments in the world. Last month I got a glimpse into that complexity.
- Categories
- Education, Social Enterprise
-
NextThought: Quick Reflections from Harvard’s Social Enterprise Conference
The students of Harvard met and exceeded expectations at their annual Social Enterprise Conference through a healthy mix of panel discussions, hands-on workshops and a student-driven entrepreneurial spirit that was palpable in every hallway.
- Categories
- Finance, Social Enterprise
-
Advancing Healthcare With the BoP: To Emerging Markets and Back Again
What happens when a large U.S.-based multinational company wants to get a product to market in the BoP? For Pfizer and GE, the approach is two-fold: part market-based and part philanthropic but both closely linked to market objectives of the firms.
- Categories
- Health Care, Social Enterprise