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Get Your Corporate Governance Groove On: Why social entrepreneurs need get in step with reality
You started out with just an idea for a social enterprise, and you’ve worked hard to get the right pieces in place to put it into action. Who’s going to be your CEO? If you’re not ready for that question yet, you should be. You may think the answer is obvious: You. Guess again.
- Categories
- Investing
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ANDE Goes Global: The network has added four new global team members
To begin to address the need for more local collaboration, we started to pilot Regional Chapters in early 2010 by asking members where they should be – and encouraging them to work with us to design and launch chapters in regions where there were high concentrations of ANDE members who wanted to work together in a more intentional way. This led to the launch of chapters in Brazil, Central America/Mexico, East Africa and South Africa in 2010, followed by India in 2011. We have recently increased our team to include four new global team members.
- Categories
- Investing
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Mindful Metrics: Gaining Momentum With Social Enterprise Funders, Public and/or Private
Regardless of constituency – from donors to social enterprises to government development agencies – the momentum behind the metrics field is accelerating. Private funders are increasingly requiring investment enterprises to collect metrics – some are even specifying how the metrics are collected. Investors and donors are also soliciting new research on impact to inform what is and isn’t working in development. This research continues to push the envelope with new methods to collect metrics.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment, Investing
- Tags
- impact investing
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NexThought Monday: Mindful Metrics – A Conversation With GBF’s Metrics Officer
This guest post from the Grassroots Business Fund is part of a short series on approaches to metrics, leading to the upcoming Metrics Conference from the Ground Up Conference later this month hosted by the Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs. Allison Basile joined the Grassroots Business Fund (GBF) in 2009 and serves as its metrics officer, a role in which she oversees the organization’s metrics and environmental and social management
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- Impact Assessment, Investing
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On the Upswing: ANDE’s 2011 Impact Report
According to the Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs, over the past three years, fundraising targets for funds focused on small and growing businesses increased by 71 percent, reaching $3.73 billion in 2011. During this same time, 102 SGB funds completed fundraising efforts and began making investments.
- Categories
- Investing
- Tags
- scale
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The FOUND Middle Series: FUNDES in Latin America
Next in our video series, the FOUND Middle, we introduce Ueli Frei, executive director of FUNDES. Frei discusses the organization’s work helping large corporations organize their suppliers and distributors and facilitating sourcing from small businesses.
- Categories
- Investing
- Tags
- supply chains
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Microfinance Giant Launches Venture Capital Fund For East Africa
Accion, an international microfinance and investment firm, has launched Venture Lab, a $10 million investment vehicle which will provide seed capital and management support to financial inclusion startups worldwide, with a particular focus on East Africa and India.
- Categories
- Investing, Technology
- Region
- North Africa & Near East
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Cisco Invests in Rural Venture Capital Firm
Cisco today announced an investment in Aavishkaar, a venture fund founded to promote development in rural and semi-urban India.
- Categories
- Investing
- Region
- South Asia