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Scaling your Social Enterprise – While Handling your Success: A Q&A with Microfinance Pioneer Alex Counts
Few people know more about the opportunities and pitfalls of scaling a social enterprise than Alex Counts. A seminal figure in microfinance, he led Grameen Foundation's growth from a $6,000 start-up to a $20 million powerhouse, while playing a key role in the often turbulent expansion of the broader microfinance sector. NextBillion caught up with Counts to discuss his latest book, “Changing the World Without Losing Your Mind.” The book – and this Q&A – provide essential advice for social impact leaders working to grow their organizations – and dealing with the new tensions scale can bring.
- Categories
- Finance, Social Enterprise
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Nigeria Needs A More Effective Sanitation Strategy – Here Are Some Ideas
In November last year, Nigeria declared that its water supply, sanitation and hygiene sector was in crisis.
- Categories
- WASH
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Big Challenge, Simple Solution: Could Bookkeeping Take India’s Small Businesses from Good to Great?
Small businesses tend to dream big and start small, but somewhere in the middle they do not grow. According to Vikas Kabra at Menterra, in his interactions with small merchants in India, he's noticed a surprisingly simple obstacle to their growth: a lack of bookkeeping. Out of hundreds of micro-merchants he has interacted with, barely any track their day-to-day business performance. Kabra discusses the problem, and calls for new tech-based solutions that could make bookkeeping fast, easy and approachable for small business owners.
- Categories
- Finance
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Press Release: Mastercard and USAID Extend Relationship to Support Women Entrepreneurs
“At the U.S. Agency for International Development, we know that investing in women builds resilient, self-reliant, and prosperous societies,” said Mark Green, USAID Administrator. “USAID's partnership with Mastercard will accelerate the achievement of these goals by leveraging the collective resources and expertise of the U.S. Government to unlock the full economic potential of women around the world.”
- Categories
- Finance
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Press Release: First-Of-Its-Kind U.S. Government Blended-Finance Fund to Empower Women in Developing Markets
The WAM fund is a blended-finance vehicle designed to attract private capital in developing markets by offering protection to commercial investors by lowering the risk of loss. This blended-finance approach seeks to catalyze capital to create a $100 million fund to invest specifically in women’s financial inclusion.
- Categories
- Finance
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Press Release: OPIC Backs Asset Manager Deetken Impact and Mission-Driven Company Pro Mujer to Empower Women in Latin America
Deetken Impact and Pro Mujer team up to invest in women and girls, delivering strong financial returns and meaningful, measurable social and environmental benefits. The Overseas Private Investment Corporation has committed $10 million to grow the fund.
- Categories
- Investing
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Ghana Is Adopting a Data-Driven Approach to Fighting Poverty
The government is now seriously committed to a “leave no one behind” ethic, which means counting every single person in the population. That includes people who are sometimes called “the invisible” — those who live in slums, who are homeless, or who are institutionalized.
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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It’s Not a Diet, It’s a Lifestyle: Is Developmental Evaluation the Right Measurement Strategy For Your Organization?
Social enterprises working in emerging economies know it’s important to measure their social impact, but they often struggle to find the right approach. Like dieters looking for quick weight loss, they try one strategy or another – then grow frustrated when they fail. But according to Rebecca Baylor at WDI, there’s a solution that's geared toward the unique challenges these businesses face. Called “developmental evaluation,” it resembles not a fad diet, but a new impact measurement lifestyle. She explores this innovative approach, and how organizations can use it successfully.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment, Social Enterprise
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