Articles by James Militzer
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Friday
November 6
2015Weekly Roundup 11-6-15: Rotary provides blueprint against disease, but passion’s hard to duplicate
Polio has almost totally been eliminated and Rotary International deserves much of the credit. As an added bonus, this U.S.-based service organization composed of business and professional leaders has given the world a playbook to fight deadly diseases.
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Thursday
November 5
2015The Impact of Tech: Sandhya Hegde of Khosla Impact Fund discusses how high-tech solutions can transform lives at the BoP
Khosla Impact Fund is an early stage equity fund that focuses on tech startups that help improve the standard of living at the BoP around the world, with a particular focus on India and East and West Africa. In this interview, recorded at the recent SOCAP15 conference, general partner Sandhya Hegde discusses the sectors and social issues that lend themselves to tech solutions, how Khosla works to help grow the ecosystem for their investees, and other issues related to the impact of tech on the developing world.
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- Investing, Technology
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- impact investing
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Guest Articles
Friday
October 30
2015From ‘Nice to Have’ to ‘Need to Have’: The GIIN’s Kelly McCarthy discusses the growing momentum – and ongoing challenges – of impact assessment
IRIS Senior Manager Kelly McCarthy at the Global Impact Investing Network believes that “the impact investing community is embracing the value of social and environmental impact data, which is very encouraging.” McCarthy spoke about the momentum behind impact measurement, investors’ changing attitudes toward it, and the challenges of getting companies on board in the Q&A.
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- Impact Assessment, Investing
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Guest Articles
Friday
October 23
2015James Militzer / Scott Anderson / Kyle Poplin
Weekly Roundup 10-23-15: Impact Investing Recovers from ‘The Cooties’
Most people don’t associate Department of Labor policy changes with excitement. But this week’s announcement of changes to the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) has primed the impact investing movement to party like it’s 1994. We explore the move in this roundup, along with some inspiring words on what every social entrepreneur should ask themselves, and some critical points on business school ethics.
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- Impact Assessment, Investing
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Thursday
October 22
2015(UPDATED) Weekly Roundup 10-2-15: Kiva Zip folds in Kenya – what happened? Updated with a Kiva Zip response
Kiva Zip was launched in 2011 to considerable acclaim, and its dual operations in the U.S. and Kenya appeared to be progressing smoothly. But recently, Kiva Zip announced that it is winding down its Kenyan operations. What happened, and what does it mean for the future of the direct person-to-person lending approach in microfinance? Kiva Zip's senior director responds.
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- microfinance
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Friday
October 16
2015Scott Anderson / James Militzer / Kyle Poplin
Weekly Roundup 10-16-15: The built-in drama of SOCAP
The world of double-bottom-line investment is still in its infancy, relatively speaking, and it’s growing. The key players are still trying to understand each others’ motivations and how best to work together. That intricate, evolving dance between investors and investees is, at the end of the day, what SOCAP is all about, and why it’s so compelling.
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- Energy, Environment
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Guest Articles
Thursday
October 15
2015Impact 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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Monday
October 12
2015Overcoming 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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