-
Pakistan’s social entrepreneurs eager to unlock innovation potential
The social enterprise landscape in Pakistan is nascent but fast-growing. From diverse sectors ranging from dairy farms to educational hubs to micro drip irrigation, early-stage enterprises have the potential of achieving hybrid financial return and social impact. Crucially, they are attracting interest from impact investors and business angels alike.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment
-
Pushing Back on ‘Scalable’: Reconsidering the buzz word for a successful social enterprise
If a social business improves people’s lives by helping them overcome the poverty line by fulfilling their needs, I can’t believe scalability is the key for its success. I believe its purpose should be and is to become self-sufficient, with fair wages for employees within the law. How can this not be considered a success?
- Categories
- Impact Assessment
-
Where are the poor? : Lessons to share from BRAC’s poverty ‘graduation program’
In the countries that have some incarnation of the “graduation program” targeting the ultra-poor that BRAC began first experimenting with in the 1990s, communities themselves are also grappling with the question: Where are the poor? It’s a question that large scale aid agencies, impact investors, social enterprises, multinational companies and others ask on a regular basis. So, we thought those stakeholders and others would benefit from learning a bit more about our process.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment, Social Enterprise
-
A Changemaker’s Secret: The Role of Self-permission in Changemaking
I recently attended an event in Toronto hosted by Ashoka Canada, convening a community of people who are changing systems and frameworks by partnering with businesses, schools and communities. While there, I met Peter Mortifee, a retired physician and founder of Somerset Foundation. His journey reflects the most fundamental step in becoming a changemaker: giving ourselves permission.
- Categories
- Education, Impact Assessment
-
Special Series (Part 2): BPO for the BoP – The need for (and promise of) Impact Sourcing
In part one of this series, we defined Impact Sourcing and some of the factors accelerating its growth. Now, let’s look a little deeper into the two key trends driving interest in the space and whether these can be married through Impact Sourcing in a manner that drives benefit for both the BPO industry, as well as poor and vulnerable communities in emerging economies.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Education, Impact Assessment, Technology
-
TOI Social Impact Awards: They battled the odds to even the chances
"I have some questions before we begin. Can we all turn to page 140 of the dossier provided to the jury?" These words, spoken by National Advisory Council member and Rajya Sabha MP Anu Aga, and received with approving nods by the other jury members, immediately made one thing clear. The jury had done its homework, wading through 300 pages of expert assessments, field reports and background information on the 41 candidates shortlisted for the second Times of India Social Impact Awards in association with JP Morgan.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment
- Region
- South Asia
-
Social Impact Investing Will Be the New Venture Capital
During the past century, governments and charitable organizations have mounted massive efforts to address social problems such as poverty, lack of education, and disease. Governments around the world are straining to fund their commitments to solve these problems and are limited by old ways of doing things. Social entrepreneurs are stultified by traditional forms of financing. Donations and grants don't allow them to innovate and grow. They have virtually no access to capital markets and little flexibility to experiment at various stages of growth. The biggest obstacle to scale for the social sector is this lack of effective funding models.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment
- Tags
- impact investing
-
Measure, Crunch and Benchmark: Helping organizations advance business and social performance goals
At Grameen Foundation, we are using a mix of primary and secondary data to support decision-making in MFIs and pro-poor organizations across different regions. To illustrate this, we wanted to share an example of how we are helping an MFI better allocate its resources to increase its poverty outreach. This approach also gives the MFI a better understanding of how customers at different poverty levels are contributing to the “bottom line” of the business.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment
- Tags
- microfinance