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Register for Social Finance Forum, Canada’s Leading Impact Investing Event – Get 10% Discount
Now in its 10th year, the Social Finance Forum, organized by MaRS Centre for Impact Investing, is Canada’s leading gathering of impact investors and social entrepreneurs. It bestows Social Finance Awards, for which the deadline to apply is Oct. 20. There's also a Venture Pitch Competition with a $5,000 prize. NextBillion is a media partner and our readers get a 10 percent discount.
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- Impact Assessment, Investing
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Sanitation Solutions: Stop Using Water as a Resource
NextBillion sits down with Isabel Medem roughly two years after we first wrote about her sanitation company, x-runner. The firm, Peru's first certified B Corp., provides in-home sanitation in the slums of Lima, by combining portable, dry toilets and a weekly pick-up system. Here, Medem talks about the firm's progress and some of the challenges facing sanitation worldwide.
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- Uncategorized
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Beyond Microcredit: Why Tackling Poverty Requires More Than a Loan
It's clear that microcredit is not enough to end poverty, say Gary Carrier and Harrison Pharamond of MCE Social Capital. But this does not stop MCE from investing in microfinance institutions. Instead, they maximize the impact of these investments by supporting MFIs in offering “credit-plus services” - additional services that address poverty holistically.
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- Impact Assessment, Investing, Social Enterprise
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Glasses for the Masses: Because It’s Easier to Navigate a Path out of Poverty When You Can See
On this World Sight Day, VisionSpring President Ella R. Gudwin writes that though eyeglasses are a cost-effective poverty reduction tool, 2.5 billion people do not have the eyeglasses they need to earn and learn. Gudwin announces a new partnership with Target and Williams-Sonoma Inc. that aims to improve workers' vision on a grand scale to bridge the visual divide.
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- Health Care, Social Enterprise
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Three Key Insights from GIIN Report on the Power of Capacity Building in Impact Investing
Capacity-building support, also known as technical assistance, is a vital tool used by many investors to complement their investments and expand and deepen their impact. When applied well, capacity building improves investor competitiveness, enhances business performance of investees, expands impact for beneficiaries and strengthens markets, writes Abhilash Mudaliar of GIIN.
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- Impact Assessment, Investing
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‘Cross-sell Done Well’: How One Finance App Found a Balance Between Digital and Human Touch
Field officers at the Sajida Foundation, a microfinance provider in Bangladesh, knew their clients had rich financial lives, and that some held sizable savings balances to enable their goals. They also knew these clients could earn more by converting their savings to a term deposit account. Yet it was difficult for them to offer complex financial advice, or to answer questions around tiered interest rates and differentiated products. The Foundation worked with BFA to develop an Android-based app to address these issues – Ashirul Amin discusses the lessons learned.
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- Finance, Technology
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Are Financial Returns Starting to Compete with Social Goals? An Impact Investor Assesses its Involvement in Off-Grid Solar
In the second of two posts, Oikocredit's Laura de Bresser assesses the social and environmental value of its off-grid solar investments: Is achieving financial returns starting to compete with social impact? Here's what the investment firm discovered about whether it's really helping people and the planet – and whether it should continue investing in this market.
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- Energy, Impact Assessment, Investing, Social Enterprise
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Impact Investing and the Profitability Challenge in Off-Grid Solar: Oikocredit Joins the Debate
The debate around impact investing in off-grid solar has sparked surprising passion, and now Oikocredit joins the discussion with a two-post series. In this first post, Laura de Bresser tackles the question of how (and whether) off-grid solar companies can become operationally profitable and less dependent on equity and debt.
- Categories
- Energy, Investing, Social Enterprise