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Mindful Metrics: Gaining Momentum With Social Enterprise Funders, Public and/or Private
Regardless of constituency – from donors to social enterprises to government development agencies – the momentum behind the metrics field is accelerating. Private funders are increasingly requiring investment enterprises to collect metrics – some are even specifying how the metrics are collected. Investors and donors are also soliciting new research on impact to inform what is and isn’t working in development. This research continues to push the envelope with new methods to collect metrics.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment, Investing
- Tags
- impact investing
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A Formula for Social Innovation?: Reflections from the UN Social Innovation Summit, 2012.
At last week’s United Nations Social Innovation Summit in New York, all manner of change agents - from social entrepreneurs, to philanthropists, industry titans, impact investors and celebrities stretched the confines of a term that, admittedly, gets thrown around haphazardly and can mean different things to different people. What exactly is “social innovation?”
- Categories
- Impact Assessment, Technology
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Introducing the 2013 NextBillion Case Writing Competition Judges
Winning cases for the NextBillion Case Writing Competition will be published and likely adopted by numerous university professors instructing the next generation of business leaders. So we’re happy to have a team of judges with seriously strong CVs and a depth of experience in the worlds of academia, consulting, development, and business.
- Categories
- Education, Social Enterprise
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Key Findings from the Base of Pyramid Week
Last week, top executives of multinational and regional companies, leading impact investors, members of government, and international organization representatives came from around the US and the globe to learn from the IDB and each other about how business models for the base of the pyramid can launch and scale quickly and profitably. The event was organized by Opportunities for the Majority (OMJ), the IDB department in charge of spotting, nurturing and funding business models to engage base of the pyramid markets on a large scale in Latin America and the Caribbean.
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- Uncategorized
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A Day at Husk Power University
Acumen Fund invested in Husk Power Systems (HPS) in 2010 to help scale their innovative business model of using discarded rice husks as a source for rural off-grid electricity generation. HPS has since expanded to over 90 plants all over Bihar, India, and has launched Husk Power University (HPU), a technical training institute for future mechanics and operators for HPS. I spent a day there.
- Categories
- Education, Energy, Environment
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The Case for Micro-Equity: Same Infrastructure, Different Mechanism
The vast majority of entrepreneurs served by MFI loans still lack the ability to scale their business, add real value in the supply chain, and steadily increase their profitability. Micro-businesses frequently take out several rounds of loans, creating a cycle, not true sustainability. We believe the answer that not only provides additional capital and a more long-term approach, but also greater benefits for investors as well, lies with micro-equity.
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- Uncategorized
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NexThought Monday: Mindful Metrics – A Conversation With GBF’s Metrics Officer
This guest post from the Grassroots Business Fund is part of a short series on approaches to metrics, leading to the upcoming Metrics Conference from the Ground Up Conference later this month hosted by the Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs. Allison Basile joined the Grassroots Business Fund (GBF) in 2009 and serves as its metrics officer, a role in which she oversees the organization’s metrics and environmental and social management
- Categories
- Impact Assessment, Investing
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Weekly Roundup: Bringing Broadband to the BoP and Other Insights From OMJ’s BoP Week
Like housing, expanding broadband requires close collaboration with public and private stakeholders, and a willingness to build trust across them. Building that trust was part of the mission of the Opportunities for the Majority’s Strategic Partners Dialogue, which brought together government officials, financers, NGOs, and, of course, entrepreneurs to discuss how policy innovation can be a catalyst for market-based solutions to poverty in both broadband and housing.
- Categories
- Technology, Telecommunications
