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The Funder Problem: Good Intentions Aren’t Enough
Despite their good intentions, funders are often the biggest barriers to social enterprises or nonprofits achieving impact. Open Road Alliance, a philanthropic initiative that gives emergency grants to impact-focused organizations, gathered and analyzed five years of data about roadblocks faced by over 100 grantees. Nearly half of the problems the group found were caused by funders. Laurie Michaels describes the three categories of funder-related barriers that account for the most frequent challenges – and offers some surprisingly easy fixes.
- Categories
- Entrepreneurship
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UN says Asia’s social enterprises face $2.5T funding gap
To address the $2.5 trillion funding gap in Asia, the United Nations is counting on the private sector to support social enterprises.
- Categories
- Entrepreneurship, Investing
- Region
- Asia Pacific
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Younger Entrepreneurs Choose Social Impact As Their Top Business Priority
One in five entrepreneurs considers social responsibility, being active in the community, or environmental responsibility as their top priority as a business owner, rather than prioritising areas such as maximising shareholder value or economic prosperity.
- Categories
- Entrepreneurship
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Internalizing Innovation: It’s About Creating a Culture, Not a Product
Innovation holds the key to expanding financial health for low- and moderate-income households—but how can organizations foster a culture of innovation, rather than treating it as a one-off event or a process fix? MetLife Foundation and UNCDF are launching two new innovation hubs in China and Malaysia that aim to promote this cultural shift. Krishna Thacker and Jaspreet Singh discuss the program's unique approach.
- Categories
- Education, Entrepreneurship, Inclusive Fintech
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G7 DFIs Aim to Mobilize $3 Billion to Invest in World’s Women
A major new commitment was announced today by the development finance institutions (DFI) of the G7 to mobilize $3 billion by 2020 for investment in business activities that will benefit women. The 2X Challenge: Financing for Women (‘2X Challenge’), is an ambitious target that calls on DFIs to mobilize their own funds, as well as private capital, to unlock resources that will help advance women as entrepreneurs, as business leaders, as employees and as consumers of products and services that their enhance economic participation.
- Categories
- Entrepreneurship, Investing
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How Western Definitions Perpetuate Ethnocentric Bias – Even Among the Social Impact Crowd
You'd think that ethnocentrism – judging another culture by the standards or values of one's own – would be relatively rare in the global, cosmopolitan social impact sector. In fact, says KadAfrica founder Rebecca Kaduru, it's alive and well, as social entrepreneurs must often adapt to ethnocentric definitions to secure the funding necessary to grow their enterprises. She explores why this dynamic has to change.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Education, Entrepreneurship
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Tata Trust’s FISE develops low-cost portable MRI scanner to take health services to rural India
In a statement to the press, FISE said that the 1.5 Tesla whole body MRI scanner can make MRI scans four times faster, compared to other scanners that are currently available in the market while consuming less power and being light weight hence easy to carry.
- Categories
- Entrepreneurship, Health Care, Technology
- Region
- South Asia
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Myanmar enterprise tries to make trash trendy
"We're trying to change the way of thinking that recycled things are old and dirty," explains Canadian volunteer and product developer Debra Martyn.
- Categories
- Entrepreneurship, Environment
- Region
- Asia Pacific
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