Articles by Heather Esper
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Guest Articles
Monday
September 21
2020Heather Esper / Vava Angwenyi / Monica Cuba / Matthew Guttentag / Mallory St. Claire
Flipping the Script: Why Small and Growing Businesses Should Lead the Researchers – Not the Other Way Around
All too often, global development research hinges on the interest of researchers, rather than the knowledge needs of small and growing businesses and their impacted communities. This can leave entrepreneurs with plenty of reports, but no practical tools for continuing to collect and use data themselves. Analysts at the William Davidson Institute, Gente Del Futuro, Practical Action and ANDE propose a better approach: letting small businesses lead the way.
- Categories
- Entrepreneurship, Technology
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Interviews
Thursday
March 21
2019Getting to the SDGs – And What’s Next for Multi-Sector Collaboration
We live in an era of multi-sector solutions. But it's easy to forget that diverse sectors working closely toward big global development goals is a recent phenomenon that didn’t happen by chance. At a talk at the William Davidson Institute, Tami Kesselman, founder of Aligned Investing Global, discussed several key tipping points that have allowed the business, government, philanthropic and impact investing communities to overcome misaligned priorities and mistrust. Check out her interview and her predictions on what will come next in multi-sector development.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment
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Tuesday
April 3
2018Rebecca Baylor / Heather Esper / Yaquta Kanchwala Fatehi
Here’s How to Play Matchmaker to Social + Business Metrics ‘Power Couples’
For many businesses and organizations, the idea of measuring their impact can be scary, elusive or just plain boring. But pairing social and business metrics "power couples" can give organizations unique insights to solve key business challenges. In a new report, the William Davidson Institute shares the results of its work with three organizations to demystify data collection of their social impacts. Rebecca Baylor of WDI writes that the team's work proves impact measurement doesn't have to be as hard as it may seem.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment
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Friday
January 1
2016Heather Esper / Yaquta Kanchwala Fatehi
The State of Assessment: Why the ‘assess or not’ debate continues and how we can move beyond it (Part 1 of 2)
Recent debate has focused on whether businesses should assess social, economic and/or environmental impact. How did we get stuck here? In this two-part series, Heather Esper and Yaquta Kanchwala Fatehi of the William Davidson Institute explore the evolution of assessment and how to move beyond the paralysis.
- Categories
- Entrepreneurship, Impact Assessment
- Tags
- Impact Assessment, measurement, metrics, scale
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Thursday
October 22
2015Heather Esper / Yaquta Kanchwala Fatehi
The State of Assessment: Moving the conversation forward to accelerate value creation (Part 2 of 2)
Heather Esper and Yaquta Kanchwala Fatehi of the William Davidson Institute say it's time to stop debating whether businesses should assess social, economic and/or environmental impact, and move on to a conversation about how to extract the most value. They even offer five core activities to accelerate that value.
- Categories
- Entrepreneurship, Impact Assessment
- Tags
- Impact Assessment, measurement, metrics, scale
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Monday
August 10
2015NexThought Monday – Collecting Data That Matters: Nine tips for making sure your organization extracts the most value from measurement
Measurement is an iterative process. Metrics can and should shift as a company evolves from design to scale. Organizations should focus on collecting data that helps them improve their operations, such as data that can lead to them creating more value for their customers, producers and/or the communities where they operate.
- Categories
- Entrepreneurship, Impact Assessment
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Wednesday
September 10
2014SOCAP14 Takeaways: Scaling Impact: Standardization, collaboration and funding for long-term impact
Housing and sanitation: Perhaps no two sectors have greater potential for substantial impact on the many complex problems facing humanity – if their solutions are scaled. And just how to do that, and to know you’re doing it through metrics tools, was an ongoing theme at SOCAP14.
- Categories
- Entrepreneurship, Impact Assessment
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Wednesday
June 11
2014Taking a Multi-Dimensional View: Free WDI webinar series on assessing poverty impact
Many BoP ventures struggle to capture a complete picture of what is going on inside their organization. WDI’s Heather Esper on a new webinar series focused on how to how ventures can understand how their actions are truly influencing poverty.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment
