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Here’s How to Play Matchmaker to Social + Business Metrics ‘Power Couples’
For many businesses and organizations, the idea of measuring their impact can be scary, elusive or just plain boring. But pairing social and business metrics "power couples" can give organizations unique insights to solve key business challenges. In a new report, the William Davidson Institute shares the results of its work with three organizations to demystify data collection of their social impacts. Rebecca Baylor of WDI writes that the team's work proves impact measurement doesn't have to be as hard as it may seem.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment, Social Enterprise
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The Teacher-Researcher Divide: How Can Educators in Emerging Markets Make Better Use of Data?
Despite an explosion of high-quality research into K-12 learning outcomes in emerging markets, the data from those studies can be hard to interpret, leading educators to defer to their own experience and/or that of their peers instead. As a result, the best evidence on methods and strategies often goes unused by teachers. Sean Geraghty of the private school operator Bridge International Academies considers a recent partnership with the Liberian government and asks: How can educators truly incorporate the latest research into their lessons?
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- Education, Impact Assessment
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Better Neighborhood, Better Life: What Research Shows About Investments in Equitable Development
Research shows that a child's neighborhood impacts professional outcomes and earnings, and that environment plays a role in exacerbating racial inequality. That's why JPMorgan Chase is working with lenders across the U.S. on a new approach to community development – one focused on neighborhood revitalization. Colleen Briggs discusses Partnerships for Raising Opportunity in Neighborhoods, a $125 million, five-year capital commitment to help communities fuel economic growth.
- Categories
- Finance, Impact Assessment
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Reconciling Paris Agreement goals for temperature, emissions—study finds two targets don’t always go hand in hand
As society faces the challenge of limiting warming to no more than 2 degrees Celsius, new research finds an apparent contradiction: Achieving that goal doesn't necessarily require cutting greenhouse gas emissions to zero, as called for in the Paris Agreement. But under certain conditions, even zero emissions might not be enough.
- Categories
- Energy, Environment, Impact Assessment
- Tags
- climate change
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Press release: International Monetary Fund Releases Gender Disaggregated Financial Access Survey
As part of its commitment to support financial inclusion, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) conducts an annual Financial Access Survey (FAS). The FAS is a high-quality supply-side financial inclusion database with a global reach to support policy analysis and formulation in the financial inclusion area. The 2016 FAS round included a pilot to capture the financial access gender data gap and support the IMF’s analysis of women’s economic empowerment in boosting growth and reducing income inequality. [2] The pilot, which included the participation of 28 countries, revealed that in almost half of the participating economies, financial service providers had access to their customers’ gender information.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment
- Tags
- data, financial inclusion
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On Pioneering Capital, Mentorship and Accelerators: It Turns Out You Can Do (A Lot) More With Less
Less than 3 percent of impact investment funds made their way to early-stage ventures in 2017. Sachi Shenoy and Nathan Byrd of Upaya Social Ventures believe the impact investing sector must do better. After several years of investing pioneer capital in social enterprises, they offer several solutions that take advantage of a "less is more" philosophy.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment, Investing, Social Enterprise
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Bridging the Gender Gap in Agriculture: Eight Success Stories for International Women’s Day
Women account for more than 40 percent of the agricultural workforce worldwide, but they own less than 20 percent of the world’s land, and earn just a fraction of what their male counterparts do. On International Women’s Day, Oumou Camara, writing on behalf of Farming First, shares the stories of eight remarkable women who are bridging the gender gap in agriculture in emerging markets around the world.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Impact Assessment, Social Enterprise
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Four Steps to Avoid Dead-End Impact Investing Leads
Dead-end leads are frustrating for both entrepreneurs and investors. They involve wasted time and resources, disappointment, and the erosion of relationships – and sometimes the exchange of capital that's a poor fit for the entrepreneur’s business. To prevent these issues, the Center for the Advancement of Social Entrepreneurship (CASE) has created an online toolkit to help impact entrepreneurs identify their top investor targets. Kimberly Langsam and Cathy Clark at CASE summarize the simple four-step process – and CASE will host a free online demo with more information on March 13 and 19.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment, Investing