NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Thursday, July 10, 2014

Much of the hype around crowdfunding has frustratingly proved to be so much hot air. The United Nations Global Compact and the U.S. State Department are working to change that by bringing crowdfunding forward to finance projects in the developing world, especially projects designed to address the social problems endemic there.

U.S.-based crowdfunding site Gate Global Impact is partnering with the UN Global Compact to launch Gateway 2.0, a site that will allow members of the UN Global Compact’s Social Enterprise Hub to access capital of from $500,000 to $10 million.

Rosedel Davies-Adewebi, project manager for social enterprise and impactinvesting at the UN Global Compact, explained that through this innovative partnership the UN Global Compact hopes to advance this form of equity crowdfunding as a new approach to impact investing, addressing gaps in the missing middle of finance and connect capital to impactful businesses addressing critical areas related to the UN-Post 2015 agenda.

Similarly, the U.S. State Department will soon launch a partnership with the crowdfunding site RocketHub to accelerate social impact projects from 60 countries around the world.

On Thursday, July 10, 2014 at 1:00 Eastern, Davies-Adewebi, Vincent Molinari, CEO of Gate Global Impact, and Daniella Foster, the director of public-private partnerships for the U.S. State Department, will join me to talk about the potential for crowdfunding to play a critical role in international development and the eradication of poverty . Tune in here then to watch the interview.