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NexThought Monday: How to Eat Your Chocolate and Advance Development, Too
According to Global Financial Integrity, developing countries lost billions per year from 2000 to 2008 in money that is illegally earned, transferred or utilized, with a large portion coming from conflict cocoa. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if there was a way to stop or limit funding conflict while eating chocolate too? Well, there is.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Impact Assessment
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Friday Roundup 7-8-11: The Wisdom of the Crowds (Funding)
We’ve been talking about the promise and, as some see it, the perils of Impact Investing this week and continuing through the month, on our newly launched Big Idea Page. Whether technically "impact" investing or not, the week saw several major deals break for socially inclined enterprises.
- Categories
- Social Enterprise
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Making the Global Ad Market Work for the BoP, One Bike At a Time
Global advertising spending is forecast to surpass $500 billion in 2011. When Coca Cola paints a roadside kiosk in Kikuyu, they’re paying someone. Why doesn’t that someone include you? That’s the question social entrepreneur Magali Bongrand asked in founding INSTINCT - a social enterprise leveraging corporate ad money to finance social ventures.
- Categories
- Environment
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8 Lessons for Creating an Impact Investing Fund
The beginning of this year saw the official launch of Adobe Capital and the formal start of the process of obtaining investors. After several months of submitting our proposal to the United States, Europe, and Latin America, we can now share some of the lessons from our process. We hope our journey will help other funds interested in the segment.
- Categories
- Social Enterprise
- Tags
- impact investing
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The (Not So) Dangerous Promise of Impact Investing
As impact investors, we welcome criticism because it will help clarify the role of impact investing within the space. That said, we disagree with many assertions made by Felix Oldenburg of Ashoka Europe recently. The truth is that for-profit social enterprise and impact investing do not limit social impact by taking away dollars from the "idea."
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- Investing
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How Social Entrepreneurs Are Doing More for the Environment Than Tree Huggers
Could it be that by working to cure the ills of poverty, we are in fact "saving the planet?" Is it possible that #SOCENT is doing more to save the polar bears than solar roofing companies? My answer: maybe, probably. It’s not that the environmental movement is erroneous, but rather that it lacks an emphasis on poverty reduction.
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- Uncategorized
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Striking a Balance: GIIN Leader On Impact Investment’s Role, Critics and Future
Not every investment is an impact investment; not every enterprise can (or should) be funded by impact investors. In our interview, Amit Bouri, Director of Strategy and Development at the Global Impact Investing Network, defines impact investing, discusses its role in the sector, responds to recent criticism of the field and charts a path forward.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment, Social Enterprise
- Tags
- impact investing
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Friday Roundup 7/1/11: Kiva Launches First ’Kiva City’ in Detroit
The new Kiva City initiative combines the power of civic leaders, community organizations, and financial institutions. Rolling out first in Detroit, Kiva has partnered with Michigan Corps and ACCION USA to bring financial inclusion to a city that is wholly determined - from the government level to the individual level - on working collaboratively.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
