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Open the Spigot: The Way We Think About Impact Investing is Too Narrow
You hear about it all the time in impact investing reports, articles and blogs: The lack of deal flow. But Tanner Taddeo of ChangeSquare believes the industry's challenge isn't a lack of investible companies, but rather the industry’s narrow definition of impact and how it "blinds" investors to companies that are creating impact in other industries and geographies. Taking a more holistic, rather than plug-and-play approach, will contribute to a broadening definition of impact and subsequently open the spigot for deals, he argues.
- Categories
- Entrepreneurship, Investing
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Stupid Stoves: Why Rebranding Won’t Solve the Clean Cooking Alliance’s Problems
In her recent interview with NextBillion, Clean Cooking Alliance CEO Dymphna van der Lans described the organization's ambitious new vision. But her words didn't sit well with Warm Heart Worldwide founder Michael Shafer, who raises a pointed question: After nearly 10 years of massive investment, hype and exposure, he asks, "Where is the Clean Cooking Alliance now? Getting rebranded and starting over!" Shafer argues that the Alliance's current efforts fail to address the major issues that have hampered it from the start – and proposes a different way forward – in this provocative post.
- Categories
- Energy, Environment, Technology
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How to Become an Impact Investor: Five Tips to Align Your Investments With Your Values
Using investments to leverage philanthropy is one of the most promising approaches to helping solve the world’s social and environmental challenges — while also meeting financial objectives. And though the impact investing landscape and its lexicon and metrics can seem daunting at times, getting started is actually quite simple, says Michael Tiedemann, CEO of Tiedemann Advisors. He shares some key takeaways for new investors to consider, based on his company’s experiences with a range of impact investors.
- Categories
- Investing
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How Does Digital Finance Impact Low-Income Clients? Insights From a New ‘Evidence Gap Map’
Digital finance can help people live happier, healthier and more prosperous lives – but those outcomes are not inevitable. And the more data we have about the effects of various digital finance products, the better those products will be, says Niamh Barry at Caribou Digital. That’s why the Partnership for Finance in a Digital Africa created the Digital Finance Evidence Gap Map, which now includes 55 studies covering 60 products. Barry highlights some key insights from the research, and how it can boost the sector’s social impact.
- Categories
- Finance, Impact Assessment
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Enough Equity Financing: Why the Future of Impact Fintechs Depends on Private Debt
Many high-profile impact-focused fintech firms have been successful in raising Series A and B equity rounds, and many believe that form of capital can serve both growth and scale goals. But it can’t, says John Beckham, Chief Investment Officer at MicroVest Capital Management. Instead, he advocates more debt financing for fintechs that have proven their models. He explores why investors should embrace private debt as a key opportunity to turn a nascent marketplace for impact fintechs into a thriving one.
- Categories
- Entrepreneurship, Finance, Investing, Technology
- Tags
- debt, fintech, impact investing, social impact
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Quick Wins for Digital Agriculture: Why Digitizing Aggregation Centers is a Fast Path to Long-Term Impact for Smallholders
Discussion of digital agriculture innovation often focuses on buzzworthy technologies like the internet of things, artificial intelligence and blockchain. But though these technologies will eventually define the future of the sector, Ananth R Gudipati at the World Food Programme and Paul Kweheria at Mercy Corps say we should start with the basics – getting farmer organizations and SMEs to use digital tech to streamline their operations. They share insights from a digital platform developed by the Farm to Market Alliance that’s doing just that.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Technology
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More Than a Job: Helping Livelihood Programs Reach Their Development Potential
“Livelihood” is regularly cited as a focus of development work. But its definition is often vague, including projects that span multiple sectors and objectives, from skills training to financial security. According to Lexi Doolittle at S3IDF, while livelihood is a complex and flexible concept, it’s important to remember that it isn’t the same as employment. She discusses the multi-faceted nature of the livelihood approach, using the example of S3IDF’s work with small farmers in rural India.
- Categories
- Entrepreneurship
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Sustainable Connectivity: How Biofuels Can Boost Mobile Access, Support Small Farmers – And Fight Climate Change
Mobile connectivity is sweeping through rural Africa and Asia – but it has a major drawback. It’s dependent on cellular towers that often rely either on diesel power, which has economic and ecological costs and limited availability, or solar panels, which require clear, sunny skies. Fortunately, another solution is emerging: bioenergy. John Garrity, Dennis Garrity and James Daniel at the Evergreening Global Alliance explore its positive impact on food security, grid infrastructure and global climate change.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Energy, Environment, Technology
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