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How to Reach Out to Rural India? Practitioners and Academics In Dialogue
There is no shortage of ideas, and some would even say no shortage of products, that would help the rural poor to improve their social and economic situation. But distribution remains a key challenge. At the oikos swiss Practitioner Day 2011, young scholars, local experts and practitioners from several companies discussed how to tackle the issue.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Technology
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Improving Mother, Newborn Care is Aim of Jacaranda Health
Jacaranda Health is a maternal healthcare provider in Nairobi offering low income women high quality and affordable care. Founded by Nick Pearson, formerly of Acumen Fund, Jacaranda charges modest fees for services, like $1.25 per consultation and $8 for complete prenatal lab tests, with an aim to recoup costs and expand into a chain of clinics.
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- Uncategorized
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SOCAP11 Preview: How to Design Empathy and Other IDEO.org Projects
Jocelyn Wyatt, the long-time leader of social innovation at IDEO, recently became the co-lead and executive director of IDEO.org, the firm’s newly-launched non-profit started to address poverty-related challenges through design. She will be hosting Design Lab Office Hours at this year’s SOCAP and shares some experiences from IDEO.org’s early days.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment
- Tags
- scale
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NextThought Monday Gearing Up for SOCAP11: Milaap’s Service-Focused Journey
Anoj Viswanathan is co-founder of Milaap, a pioneering online platform that enables people across the world to lend to India’s working poor. He drew inspiration from Lilla Watson?s quote, ?if you have come here to help me, you are wasting your time. But if you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together."
- Categories
- Finance
- Tags
- microfinance
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Friday Roundup ? 8/26/11: Profits Without Social Compromises
Much literal and virtual ink has been spilled this week on the blurring of lines between what constitutes nonprofit and for-profit in the social space. Of course many for-profits are, not by choice, shoehorned into nonprofit status. While nonprofits, witnessing the success and efficiency of profit seeking social ventures, have changed course.
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- Uncategorized
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Unlikely Partnerships in the Social Sector
In the final part of my three-part interview with Ashoka’s Europe director Felix Oldenburg on how to create a large and sustained impact, he shared his thoughts on how to use existing, or some may call them "old" social structures -churches, welfare systems, and foundations, among others - to scale innovations.
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- Uncategorized
- Tags
- partnerships
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Mixing Oil and Water in SME Development
Like oil and water, many would argue major energy companies don’t mix with advancing social impact. However, in an industry better known for oil spills and fat profits, the Shell Foundation is shattering stereotypes by providing financing for energy and infrastructure organizations too small for commercial funding and too large for microfinance.
- Categories
- Education, Impact Assessment
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Extreme Makeover: Social Enterprise Edition
Many nonprofit organizations are awakening to the idea that a for-profit model can often generate the same intended social impacts on a scale unimaginable while locked into a NPO state of mind. The road to financial sustainability is a rocky one; here are two stories of nonprofits that navigated that road to both profit and increased impact.
- Categories
- Social Enterprise
- Tags
- impact investing
