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Saving Lake Atitlán: Women-Focused Business Provides Clean Water – and Good Jobs
After seeing that Guatemala's Lake Atitlán, where she was baptized, was contaminated, leaving thousands without jobs and clean water, Francesca Kennedy founded the social enterprise Ix Style. The company employs local female artisans to make Huarache sandals and bags, and donates 15 percent of proceeds to purchase water filters for families in Guatemala.
- Categories
- Environment, Social Enterprise
- Tags
- public health
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From Beneficiary to Customer: 40K Transitions from School-building Charity to Edtech Social Enterprise
It took five years for 40K to build its first school in India. Over that time, the organization learned a lot about the key barriers that were preventing quality education from proliferating in rural areas. Over the next two years, 40K transformed from a school-building charity to an edtech social enterprise. Clary Castrission, founder and CEO, explains why, and how the transition is progressing.
- Categories
- Education, Social Enterprise, Technology
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Mainstreaming Impact Investing: 12 Takeaways from ‘The Economist’ Event
On Feb. 15, 'The Economist' magazine hosted a discussion in New York on how impact investing can truly go mainstream. NextBillion was a media partner at the event, and we've compiled 12 memorable and sometimes unexpected insights from panelists throughout the day.
- Categories
- Investing, Social Enterprise
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Creative Climbing: How Impact Enterprises are Overcoming Obstacles in East Africa
In 2016, Intellecap undertook a study to better understand how East African impact entrepreneurs manage to design viable business models despite the various market challenges. The insights from the study can inform inclusive development in the region and across the global south. The study classified impact enterprises across three levers based on their interaction with the BoP: access, ability and knowledge.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Investing, Social Enterprise, Technology
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Social Business Roundup: Laureate Education Goes Big, Omidyar Gives Directly, Surdna Foundation Embraces Impact Investing
In social business news this week, the world's biggest for-profit college company raised $490 million in its public debut, Omidyar Network gave a $493,000 grant to support GiveDirectly's mission of sending unconditional cash transfers to the poor, and the Surdna Foundation announced plans to dedicate 10 percent of its endowment ($100 million) to a new impact investing fund. Read about these developments and more in our news roundup.
- Categories
- Education, Health Care, Investing, Social Enterprise
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The Bridge International Controversy: Ignore ‘Fabricated Information’ – Bridge is Disrupting the Failing Status Quo
Bridge International Academies Co-Founder Shannon May, responding to criticism, says Bridge is out to change the status quo: "Our innovative model is proving that education can be delivered at a very low cost in the poorest parts of the world and, more than that, the level of education provided can be better than other alternatives."
- Categories
- Education, Social Enterprise
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The Bridge International Controversy: Bridge Schools ‘Undermine the Rule of Law, Transparency and Fundamental Rights’
The Global Initiative for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights is concerned about the direction Bridge International Academies is headed, says Sylvain Aubry, and those "concerns are based on real, substantiated, independent evidence that not only the Bridge business model may be shaky, but that Bridge schools could undermine ... the rule of law, transparency and fundamental rights."
- Categories
- Education, Social Enterprise
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Social Business Roundup: Building Our Immunity to Anti-Vaxxers, Solar Loans With a Side of Health, and SRI Goes Robo
There’s a crisis of trust in the world, some of it well earned – and some, like skepticism about vaccines, completely unwarranted. We cover an alarming uptick in the anti-vax movement's profile, an effort to pair solar loans with health care in Ghana, and the emergence of "robo-SRI" in this news roundup.
- Categories
- Energy, Health Care, Investing, Social Enterprise, Technology
- Tags
- ESG, impact investing, solar, vaccines
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