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Accelerating Social Entrepreneurship in Latin America: An interview with Agora Partnerships’ CEO Ben Powell
As Ben Powell, its founder and CEO puts it, Agora Partnerships "accelerates entrepreneurs that are solving social and environmental problems in Latin America." Powell describes the process – including some surprising challenges most entrepreneurs face – and discusses emerging trends in social business and investing in this video interview.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment, Social Enterprise
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Needed: Naïve People with Stupid Ideas: An interview with Intellecap co-founder and director Vineet Rai
When Intellecap was founded in 2002, few people would have predicted that it would become a social business and investing powerhouse. According to co-founder and director Vineet Rai, the company’s early years were defined by failure. He discusses the lessons he learned from these failures (and subsequent successes), Intellecap’s unique model and future plans, and many other topics in this wide-ranging video Q&A.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment, Social Enterprise
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An Interview With Muhammad Yunus: The Godfather of Microcredit Shares His Views – And Concerns – About the Sector
Though he’s a tireless promoter of microcredit’s potential to help the poor, Muhammad Yunus hasn’t been shy in voicing his criticisms of its embrace of commercialism. In a video Q&A with NextBillion Financial Innovation – the first in a series of conversations with microfinance thought leaders – Yunus discusses his concerns about the industry’s direction, and points to ways it could improve.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment
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What Makes Toniic Tick? Part One of an Interview With Stephanie Cohn Rupp, CEO of the Impact Investor Network
Investing for social impact can be a risky business, and it helps if impact investors can leverage the knowledge of like-minded peers. Toniic, a global network of impact investors, aims to facilitate those interactions, bringing social entrepreneurs and investors together for the benefit of both. NextBillion Financial Innovation recently spoke with Toniic CEO Stephanie Cohn Rupp to discuss its approach, and the evolution of the sector.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment, Social Enterprise
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From Financial Education to Capability – A Paradigm Shift: Financial education on its own is not enough to improve consumers’ financial health
Classroom-based educational programs for improving financial health have mixed results. Improved methods that support behavior change as well as knowledge gains are needed. Sarah Gordon, Vice President, Innovation Labs at CFSI spoke with the Citi Foundation’s COO, Brandee McHale, about the importance of these new approaches, and the organizations that are pioneering them.
- Categories
- Education, Impact Assessment
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Impact Investing in the Base: A chat with Vox Capital’s Daniel Izzo
Daniel Izzo is the pioneering co-founder of Brazil’s first impact investing fund, Vox Capital, which focuses exclusively on BoP-serving businesses. Vox has invested in 12 companies, six with equity stakes and six with convertible debt investments, in Brazil. Tara Sabre Collier talks with him about the ins and outs of reaching the BoP demographic.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment, Social Enterprise
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Beyond Competition: An interview with Grameen Foundation’s Steve Wright
From a traditional business perspective, social enterprise seems to be built upon a contradiction. How can you run a company whose ultimate goal is to foster and empower competitors rather than defeat them? That’s one of the topics discussed by Steve Wright, vice president of Grameen Foundation’s Poverty Tools & Insights division, in this BoP Summit 2013 interview.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment, Social Enterprise
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Focusing New ‘Lenses’ in Investing for Change: An Interview With New Calvert Foundation CEO Jenn Pryce
Detroit’s legendary Woodward Avenue is the pipeline into some of the harshest poverty in the United States. It’s also where Calvert Foundation recently teamed up with other funders to build a retail investment vehicle for inner city revitalization. Scott Anderson spoke with Jenn Pryce, Calvert’s new CEO, about this and other initiatives, the evolution of impact investing, and her vision for Calvert.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment, Investing