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The Impact Sector is Confusing Satisfaction with Impact: Rethinking the Growing Reliance on Perception Surveys
Measurement standards in the impact sector have shifted toward perception surveys — i.e., forms that ask individuals to rate their personal experience with a program or organization — to quantify success. But as Juan Taborda Burgos, Jorge Bouchot and Miranda Hansen at Root Capital argue, perception-based metrics can mask a program’s ineffectiveness, potentially leading organizations to scale interventions that do not work. They share insights from a recent Root Capital report that reveal the downsides of relying solely on perception data, and offer four actionable principles that can help leaders navigate the pressure to demonstrate impact — while avoiding costly mistakes.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Investing, Social Enterprise
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Viewpoint: The Economy That Remembers: Institutional Amnesia and the Regenerative Correction
Modern capitalism has perfected a hidden discipline: the systematic design of economic systems that forget. What we call “externalities” are not costs that disappear — they are consequences displaced. The regenerative economy, at its core, is not simply greener or more inclusive. It is an effort to build systems that remember.
- Categories
- Investing, Social Enterprise
- Region
- Global
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FinDev Canada Proposes $33 Million Investment in BlueOrchard Initiative
BOCAMF is structured as a 12‑year private debt blended‑finance fund designed to channel capital into climate‑focused interventions across low‑ and middle‑income countries.
- Categories
- Environment, Investing, Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Proparco Grants Wema Bank a First €5 Million Guarantee to Finance Impact-Driven MSMEs in Nigeria
Proparco is granting a NGN 9 billion ARIZ portfolio guarantee (equivalent to €5 million) to Wema Bank in Nigeria. This marks the first collaboration between the two institutions.
- Categories
- Investing, Social Enterprise
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Analysis: The Broken Narrative About Nonprofit Sustainability at Scale
The dominant narratives about sustainable financing at scale can leave nonprofits questioning many of their foundational decisions.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Education, Energy, Environment, Finance, Health Care, Investing, Social Enterprise, Technology, Telecommunications, Transportation, WASH
- Region
- Global
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Polysmart Invests $60 Million in Nigeria’s Largest Plastic Recycling Plant
The plant will be the biggest of its kind with an input capacity of 100,000 tons of mixed plastics, significantly increasing the region’s overall recycling capacity and diverting vast amounts of plastic waste from landfills and waterways.
- Categories
- Environment, Investing, WASH
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- Tags
- circular economy, recycling, waste
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How Melinda French Gates Plans To Fund “Chronically,” “Unconscionably” Underfunded Programs For Women And Girls
Gates is part of a cadre of women philanthropists who are using their wealth not only to support underfunded groups but to also influence how much is given away and how quickly.
- Categories
- Health Care, Investing
- Region
- Global
- Tags
- human rights, philanthropy, youth
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Delta40 Raises $20 Million to Expand Venture Studio–Led Startup Financing Across Africa
Backers include development finance institutions, foundations, family offices, and 25 startup founders, with 14 investors located on the African continent.
- Categories
- Investing
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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