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Funding Education With Impact: How We Can Address Student, Market Needs in India
Although education is one of the most funded causes among private social funders in India, including about US $45 million in impact investment per annum over 2014-2017, this has translated into near-universal access to education at primary school level but not in other education segments. Asian Venture Philanthropy Network's Martina Mettgenberg-Lemiere and Anh Nguyen propose some market-based strategies.
- Categories
- Education, Impact Assessment, Investing
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How the World’s First Social Sustainability Bond is Connecting Back Streets to Wall Street
The Women’s Livelihood Bond (WLB) is the world’s first social sustainability bond with a dual focus on social and financial returns to be listed on a stock exchange. This represents "an immense achievement for impact investing," says Rakhi Sahay, head of Knowledge Management at Impact Investment Exchange. The WLB gives the Cambodian woman entrepreneur, the Filipino farmer, and the Vietnamese mother access to capital by providing loans to high-impact enterprises and microfinance institutions.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment, Investing
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Adding the Secret Sauce: The Recipe for Turning Young Social Entrepreneurs into Impactful Leaders
Six years ago, Alanna Sousa couldn't even pronounce the word 'entrepreneurship,' but she soon fell in love with social entrepreneurship. Sousa recounts her journey from naively opening a 'consultancy for social impact' in her native Brazil to learning the importance of mentoring and coaching for success in the social business sector. She now works for the Global Good Fund, which trains young entrepreneurs to tackle urgent social problems.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
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Sharing SOCAP: Why My Favorite Conference Needs to Leave San Francisco – And Other Takeaways from #SOCAP17
SOCAP and San Francisco: They go together like GIIN and Toniic. Bad impact investing jokes aside, NextBillion editor Scott Anderson makes the case that it's time for the much-loved social business conference to "throw off the moorings of the beautiful Marina District and consider other cities where the promise of impact investing is gaining steam." Check out his argument, along with other takeaways from the event, in this roundup.
- Categories
- Investing
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Deciphering Emerson’s Tears – Is it Time for Impact Investing to Lower its Expectations?
At SOCAP17, impact investing pioneer Jed Emerson gave a tearful speech from the main plenary stage, in which he called on the industry to remember the true purpose of capital, and not to let its efforts to build the market distract from its higher goals. We explore some potential implications of this emotional high point of the conference.
- Categories
- Investing
- Tags
- ESG, impact investing
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The Financial Lives of Struggling Americans: The Financial Diaries and The Unbanking of America
Elisabeth Rhyne of the Center for Financial Inclusion at Accion reviews two new books that take a look Americans' increasingly precarious financial lives. Both books examine America's top economic challenge – the crumbling of the economic foundation for many working-class and middle-class families – and they do so through the lens of financial services, an unusual but revealing perspective, Rhyne writes.
- Categories
- Finance
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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.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment, Investing
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Impact Investing: Take the Risk Your Challenge Deserves
At the risk of stating the obvious, investing in early-stage companies is risky. Why then would a foundation – which some might argue are organizations that have a low risk tolerance – get into impact investing? Jami O'Toole, of Michael & Susan Dell Foundation, explains why investments in for-profit firms can fill a missing piece of the puzzle in a foundation’s portfolio and generate social benefit at the same time.
- Tags
- impact investing
