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Taking Control of the Value for Money Narrative: How Innovative Metrics Are Making Impact Part of the Financial Equation
The nonprofit VisionSpring—which provides affordable, high-quality eyeglasses to base of the pyramid customers—realized it needed a metric that could balance cost and impact, while keeping its target customers at the center of decision-making. Analysts at CASE and SoJo discuss the value of the “programmatic value for money metric” VisionSpring implemented, and explore how this type of metric can help organizations consider trade-offs between cost and impact.
- Categories
- Entrepreneurship, Impact Assessment, Investing
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How Should We Measure Impact? We Asked Our Investees.
Ceniarth describes itself as an "impact-first investor," but as senior impact manager Julia Mensink points out, even with its commitment and resources, it has found that there is no simple solution to measuring impact well. She explores what Ceniarth learned by asking all its investees how they measure impact, and shares key insights which may be useful to other investors looking to deepen their impact measurement practices.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment, Investing, Technology
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Avoiding Information Overload: Four Lessons From a Performance Manager on How To Use Data To Drive Development Outcomes
Development impact bonds (DIBs) are a popular way to drive successful social outcomes – but assessing a program's effectiveness requires a lot of data. Dayoung Lee and Dia Banerjee at Dalberg Advisors share lessons they've learned from managing the performance of the world’s largest education DIB, showing how data can improve outcomes without causing undue burdens on the organizations that should be benefiting from it.
- Categories
- Education, Investing, Technology
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Flipping the Script: Why Small and Growing Businesses Should Lead the Researchers – Not the Other Way Around
All too often, global development research hinges on the interest of researchers, rather than the knowledge needs of small and growing businesses and their impacted communities. This can leave entrepreneurs with plenty of reports, but no practical tools for continuing to collect and use data themselves. Analysts at the William Davidson Institute, Gente Del Futuro, Practical Action and ANDE propose a better approach: letting small businesses lead the way.
- Categories
- Entrepreneurship, Technology
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Viewpoint: How To Measure a Company’s Real Impact
Accounting for impact took a major step forward in July with our publication of the cost of the environmental impact of 1,800 companies by the Impact-Weighted Accounts Initiative (IWAI) at Harvard Business School.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment
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Report: In July, Clean Energy Employment Gains Slowed to a Crawl
Report from BW Research shows an addition of 3,200 jobs last month
- Categories
- Coronavirus, Energy, Environment
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Viewpoint: African Innovators Not Hitting Pause During COVID
Innovations in healthcare, online learning and fintech continue in Africa during the pandemic, Lydiah Bosire writes.
- Categories
- Coronavirus, Entrepreneurship, Finance, Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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The UN Development Goals Are ‘Seriously off Track,’ an Expert Says
Reducing inequality within and among countries is a Sustainable Development Goal that is not progressing, as evidenced in demonstrations that erupted in many parts of the United States and abroad this year.
- Categories
- Coronavirus, Education, Impact Assessment
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