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From Unite for Sight: Hearing the Pitch
From recycled MP3 players given new life as educational tools to creating health centers at truck stops, to employing women with HIV as craftspeople, one highlight highlight of year’s Unite For Sight Global Health and Innovation Conference was attending social enterprise pitches - ideas in the early implementation or brainstorming stages.
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- Education, Entrepreneurship, Health Care, Impact Assessment
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Narratives Are Not Enough
Many of you have been tracking the aftermath of the 60 Minutes report about Greg Mortenson?s non-profit, Central Asian Institute (CAI), the allegations of mismanagement and misrepresentations in his book, Three Cups of Tea. It shows how critical it is to collect actual data on how organizations impact poverty. How can we increase transparency?
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- Impact Assessment
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Talking Metrics: Is Standardization a Dream?
Last week I sat down with Calvert Foundation, Grassroots Business Fund and E+Co to discuss the use of metrics by socially oriented businesses. The conversation focused on how they use metrics within their organizations and what role they see metrics playing in the future. The discussion demonstrated the need to change how stakeholders view metrics.
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- Entrepreneurship, Impact Assessment, Investing
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ViewChange Video of the Week: Living Proof, Ethiopia ? The Barbershop
In recognition of World Health Day, our video partner, ViewChange, is focusing on global health. It presents a story of one Ethiopian woman, who, after testing positive for HIV, refuses to give up. Instead, she takes out a small loan to start a business and support her family, while also vowing to educate her community about HIV.
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- Health Care, Impact Assessment
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Unleash Social Impact: Ashoka’s Globalizer and Skoll World Forum
Felix Oldenburg is challenging the mainstream dialogue on social enterprise. I had an insightful conversation with Felix, Ashoka’s Europe and Germany director, and a speaker at the Skoll World Forum. He, along with Konstanze Frischen and Maria Zapata, organized Ashoka’s first-annual Globalizer program that accelerated Ashoka Fellow enterprises.
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- Entrepreneurship, Impact Assessment, Investing
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ANDE?s 2010 Impact Report Charts A Growth Course
Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs (ANDE) released its second annual impact report today, which highlighted the growth of the small and growing business (SGB) sector with the launch of new 31 funds looking to SGBs in emerging markets, in addition to the impact of their 110 members on the sector.
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- Entrepreneurship, Impact Assessment, Investing
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WDI Developing BoP Asset Class in Asia Pacific Region
Developing a "blueprint" for a new asset class of private equity funds considering base of the pyramid enterprises and investments in the Asia Pacific region is the goal of a new project at the William Davidson Institute’s Development Consulting Services group.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment
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Why Global Social Enterprise Needs to Become Its Own Asset Class
Ashoka Fellow David Green makes the case that in order for the global social enterprise sector to truly grow, it must become its own asset class. That means taking the form of a pro-profit social entity with the right type of governance to insure fidelity to a social mission, while being supported with the right kind of financing.
- Categories
- Entrepreneurship, Impact Assessment