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Do You Speak Social Finance? Helping Entrepreneurs and Impact Investors Overcome their Language Barrier
Social entrepreneurs and impact investors often speak different languages: Entrepreneurs are fluent in the dimension of impact, while investors are more focused on the bottom line. A new education platform called the Social Finance Academy strives to bridge this gap via free, online learning packages that enable investors and entrepreneurs to reach common ground. Christina Moehrle and Maxime Cheng of Roots of Impact explore the platform's early success and potential impact.
- Categories
- Investing, Social Enterprise
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Press release: Mission Driven Finance Announces First $1M in Impact Investments
Mission Driven Finance was founded in 2016 by a seasoned team of San Diego finance and philanthropic leaders to tap into a growing trend of investors looking to drive financial returns and effect positive social change. The group’s initial “impact investments” are commercial loans that provide local community-minded borrowers access to critical capital up to $500,000 at rates that encourage success.
- Categories
- Investing
- Tags
- ESG, impact investing
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A Business Accelerator Puts India’s Urban WASH Challenges Front and Center
India's cities are plagued by multiple water, sanitation and hygiene challenges, from inadequate drinking water to low sewerage network coverage. Private sector innovators and entrepreneurs are tackling these challenges with new technologies, products, services and business models. But their successes are inconsequential compared with the scale of the problem. Niyatee Goyal and Aditya Tejas at Ennovent discuss a USAID-supported platform that's addressing these problems on several fronts – including through a business accelerator.
- Categories
- Health Care, Technology, WASH
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Press release: Social Impact Bonds reach global mass: 108 projects launched in 24 countries
The field has seen impressive growth since the first project was pioneered by Social Finance UK in 2010 in Peterborough, with a goal of reducing reoffending among short-sentenced prisoners, a chronic challenge in the UK criminal justice system. This summer it was announced that the Peterborough Social Impact Bond reduced reoffending by 9% and investors were repaid in full, with a 3% annualized return.
- Categories
- Investing
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New York’s Giant Pension Fund Doubles Climate-Smart Investment
The $2 billion boost was announced at the Investors Summit on Climate Risk, where top fund managers discussed finance for a low-carbon, clean energy future.
- Categories
- Environment, Investing
- Region
- North America
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Crowdfunded Farming: Connecting Investors with Smallholders in Indonesia
Despite the importance of agriculture in Indonesia's economy, smallholder farmers are 2.3 times poorer than the general population – and they have little access to formal financing that could boost their production and income. Because of this, many fall prey to loan sharks and go into debt. To address this vicious cycle, the crowdfunding platform Crowde is helping smallholders connect with investors, who help finance their farms in exchange for profit-sharing. Heri Siswanto discusses the successes – and challenges – of this approach.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Investing, Technology
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Grameen America Celebrates 10 Years of Empowering Women through Microfinance as it Announces Foray into Impact Investing
Previously, Grameen America had been funded largely by traditional philanthropy and concessionary capital from foundations, charitable organizations, individual investors, and commercial lenders. The organization’s adoption of impact investing as an additional means of funding comes at a time when impact investing—defined by the Global Impact Investing Network as “investments made into companies, organizations, and funds with the intention to generate social and environmental impact alongside a financial return”—is on the rise.
- Categories
- Investing
- Region
- North America
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This Impact Investing Platform Was Set To Be A Game-Changer. So Why Did It Fail?
In order to scale, impact investing needs a platform that will make it easier for investors to connect with vehicles for their funds. ImpactUs promised to do that–but its failure shows that the space wasn’t quite as ripe for innovation as its founders had hoped.
- Categories
- Investing, Technology