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Frontier Innovators: A New Roadmap for Social Impact
In recent years, there have been growing calls for businesses to focus more on their social impact. Until recently, Silicon Valley had been held up as the paragon of high-impact business models, but its star has dimmed. Social enterprise has long offered an exciting alternative, but the movement isn’t scaling. Now, a new model is emerging, driven by innovators from lesser-known places, explains Alex Lazarow, venture capitalist and author of the new book: "Out-Innovate: How Global Entrepreneurs – from Delhi to Detroit – Are Rewriting the Rules of Silicon Valley."
- Categories
- Social Enterprise
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Coronavirus Resources for the Social Impact Sector [UPDATED 12/6]
The coronavirus pandemic is forcing businesses everywhere to make difficult decisions – and the stakes are particularly high for companies in low- and middle-income countries. To help deliver actionable information to these enterprises and other social impact organizations, NextBillion has launched this regularly updated resource page, with COVID-19-related news, analysis, events, funding opportunities and more.
- Categories
- Coronavirus, Social Enterprise
- Tags
- COVID-19, impact investing
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Enterprise in the Time of Coronavirus: How NextBillion and the Businesses We Cover Are Responding to the Pandemic
As the coronavirus pandemic spreads around the world, it will have an immense impact on emerging markets communities and the businesses that serve them. So we wanted to take a moment to explain how NextBillion will be responding to these extraordinary times. We’re instituting a number of measures that will affect our coverage of coronavirus and other topics in the coming months.
- Categories
- Coronavirus, Health Care, Social Enterprise
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Social Enterprise Ghana begins advocacy for impact investing policy
Social Enterprise Ghana with funding from BUSAC, DANIDA and USAID has begun advocacy to ensure policymakers and government pass and adopt the social enterprise and impact investing policy. According to Edwin Zu-Cudjoe, the Executive Director of Social Enterprise Ghana, the policy will enable the over 28,000 social enterprises operating in the country to be recognised as such and be able to register as social enterprises with the Registrar General's Department.
- Categories
- Investing, Social Enterprise
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- Tags
- impact investing
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Microsoft, Accenture Join to Provide Tech Support to Social Enterprise Startups
Through the programme, Microsoft Research India and Accenture Labs will help social enterprise startups test and validate proof-of-concepts, conduct design thinking sessions to help them re-envision the impact of their solutions, and provide support in exploring and using Microsoft technologies.
- Categories
- Social Enterprise, Technology
- Tags
- startups
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‘Failing to Win’ as a Social Entrepreneur: A Q&A with Zoona Co-Founder Mike Quinn
Mike Quinn had no savings when he co-founded Zoona in Zambia in 2009. He also had $50,000 in student debt. During an early cash crisis, he had to ask his retired parents to mortgage their house and wire him $100,000. Yet he and his co-founders built Zoona into one of Africa’s first fintech success stories before Quinn stepped away last year. In this Q&A – the first in our series “The Untold Stories of Social Entrepreneurs” – he discusses the lessons he learned from Zoona’s successes and failures.
- Categories
- Finance, Social Enterprise
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Microsoft, Accenture join to provide tech support to social enterprise startups
Intending to help deepen the reach of entrepreneurs and start-ups that are focused on social impact and sustainability, the joint initiative by Microsoft and Accenture aims to provide hands-on support and technologies to social enterprises, helping them build scalable solutions and business models that can lead to more tangible and lasting benefits.
- Categories
- Social Enterprise, Technology
- Region
- South Asia
- Tags
- startups
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Sell Benefits, Not Features: Why Social Enterprises’ Marketing Shouldn’t Focus on Their Impact
Social enterprises tend to put their positive impact at the center of their marketing efforts – after all, that's the passion behind their business. But according to storytelling strategist Menno Moffitt de Block, there's a problem with that approach: Many people may care about this impact, but few care enough to change their purchasing decisions because of it. He explains why these businesses should focus primarily on their benefits to the customer – not their social impact.
- Categories
- Social Enterprise, Uncategorized
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