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Impact Investing Goes to School: What researchers have learned about the sector – and how much they still don’t know
Cathy Clark, the founder and director of the i3 initiative, has been working at the crossroads of academic research and impact investing for over two decades. We caught up with her at last week's SOCAP15 conference to discuss where the field is heading, how it's being impacted by the academic world, and how much researchers still don't understand.
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- Education, Impact Assessment, Social Enterprise
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Changing the Definition of a Surgeon: GE Foundation launches Safe Surgery 2020, based on the idea that clinic leadership isn’t limited to doctors
Based on three main pillars – leadership development, innovation and elevating ideas – Safe Surgery 2020 is rooted in the idea that safe surgery champions in operating rooms, hospitals and at national levels have the potential to drive cost-effective, systemic change. For example, training a doctor to empower other members of the care team to report and act upon clinical observations can greatly improve surgical outcomes.
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- Education, Health Care
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NextBillion’s Most-Read, Most-Shared Posts for August: Building the perfect accelerator, new rules in Indian banking and what can be learned from Walmart’s relationship with USAID
How do you design a business accelerator that A) supports enterprises concentrating on new products and technologies designed for poor and low income people and B) engages investors – not just their money – but also their knowledge and mentors. One accelerator that hopes to do both was our most There’s no single formula, especially if this entrepreneurial assignment takes place in developing countries and across multiple industry sectors. Many smart people are studying what makes a good accelerator a great one. In fact, it’s the subject of a big research project called the the Global Accelerator Learning Initiative (GALI), a collaboration between the Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs and Emory University.
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- Uncategorized
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Overcoming Assumptions and Prejudices to Forge a Network of Self Reliance: Why Zidisha targets young, tech-savvy entrepreneurs with loans
The nonprofit Zidisha built a different kind of micro-lending platform: One that is peer-to-peer, transparent and caters to entrepreneurs who came of age during the Internet era. In part two of our interview with CEO Julia Kurnia we discuss how Zidisha maintains its borrower-friendly focus, differentiates itself from other lending networks, and holds steadfast to the idea that loans are better than cash transfers.
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- Uncategorized
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Weekly Roundup 10-9-15 : Exits and Entrances: Two reports shed light on getting out and getting into impact enterprises
To capitalize on the chatter and excitement around impact investing that the Social Capital Markets (SOCAP) conference creates, many organizations and companies made announcements and issued reports this week. Here are two biggies that caught our eye.
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- Uncategorized
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- impact investing
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SOCAP Recap: OPTIMISM … With a Dash of Skepticism:
With warplanes thundering overhead (seriously), the crowd at Thursday's SOCAP sessions conducted a stimulating and wide-ranging discussion of the many facets of social business and investing. But among the usual positivity was a distinct note of impatience. Our editors discuss what they saw and heard at yesterday's proceedings.
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- Health Care, Impact Assessment, Social Enterprise
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Live from SOCAP15 : Quotes, tweets and nugget-sized insights from the first full day
More than 2,700 people are attending the eighth annual SOCAP – which describes itself as “the largest conference in the world that is mixing the people who want to use business to change the world for good with the people who invest and make that happen” – in San Francisco this year. Here's a smattering of quotes and tweets gathered by NextBillion.
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- Uncategorized
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- impact investing
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Microlending Peer to Peer … and Back Again: After six years, Zidisha CEO presses for low-debt loans, high transparency
Many have called for more transparency and increased accountability in microcredit - and raised concerns about the often high cost of microloans to poor recipients. Since it was founded six years ago, the nonprofit Zidisha has sought to address these issues by providing a direct connection between lenders and entrepreneurs. CEO Julia Kurnia discusses the model and its challenges in part one of this Q&A.
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- Uncategorized
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- crowdfunding
