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Seeking the Anti-Poverty Holy Grail: Can a ‘Trust Mark’ Boost Microfinance’s Social Impact?
In an effort to find which microfinance practitioners are most successfully alleviating poverty, Truelift – with the help of other microfinance rating agencies and technical experts – designed an assessment tool and beta-tested it on nine institutions around the world. The result, essentially, is a global “trust mark” for anti-poverty action. Organizers are looking for opportunities to use the tool to support assessment of a variety of service providers.
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- Uncategorized
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Individuals and institutions split on benefits of ESG investing: survey
Individuals believe the environmental, social, and ethical records of the companies they invest in are important, said Natixis, while professionals at institutions and within “the investment community” were more skeptical about the efficacy of these strategies, for example having concerns about performance measurement.
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- Investing
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- ESG, impact investing
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Making Microcredit Charities Better
While supporting women entrepreneurs is commendable, no data suggest that lending to women—or men, for that matter—is a miracle poverty cure. That’s primarily because lenders commonly charge the poor about 25% for loans. Six randomized studies of microlending programs from 2003 to 2012, published in the American Economic Journal, found no correlation with improved welfare. Although the loans can be helpful in some situations, there’s no evidence of a transformational effect.
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- Uncategorized
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The truth is finally starting to emerge about socially responsible investing
"The ESG performance of companies appears to be something that can be used to generate value in a portfolio; traditional exclusion can be a drag," Hale said.
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- Investing
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- ESG, impact investing
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The Other Capital in Impact Investing: Why Human Capital May Matter More than Money, and What Investors Can Do About It
Money is not enough for impact businesses to succeed, according to Paul Breloff of Shortlist; they need an answer to their human capital challenges to unlock their world-changing potential. Here he discusses why human capital matters, why it's being under-supported by impact investors and what it will take for more investors to see it for what it is – an area of great opportunity.
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- Investing, Social Enterprise
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Press release: TFC Financial Management Launches Sustainable and Responsible Investment Strategy
"Our clients, their families and prospective clients are increasingly expressing interest in SRI and their desire to have investment portfolios be more aligned with their personal values and social impact priorities," said TFC Chief Executive Officer Renée Kwok, CFP®. "We are pleased to be able to offer this strategy, designed to provide long-term investment returns as well as positive social and environmental impact, as both dimensions are important to these clients."
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- Investing
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- impact investing
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Financial Inclusion Takes the Next Step: An Interview with MetLife Foundation President Dennis White
As NextBillion launches our new Financial Health site under the sponsorship of MetLife Foundation, we touched base with its president and CEO, Dennis White. In this wide-ranging interview, White discusses the evolution of the financial inclusion movement, and the work the foundation is doing to advance it – including its grant-making and investing approach, its ongoing challenges, and what it has learned from both success and failure, among other issues.
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- Finance
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Asia catches the sustainable investment bug… at last
Asia ex-Japan has been a latecomer to the trend, accounting for just 0.2% of global socially responsible investment (SRI) assets. SRI assets in the region still increased 15.7% from 2014 though and investors are counting on a lot more to come.
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- Investing
- Region
- Asia Pacific
- Tags
- impact investing
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