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Gates: Foundation to Invest $5B in Africa Over Next 5 Years
Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist Bill Gates said Sunday his foundation will invest another $5 billion in Africa over the next five years. Gates delivered the Nelson Mandela Annual Lecture ahead of Mandela Day, when South Africans are encouraged to donate 67 minutes of their time to help others. Gates is also in South Africa to attend a global AIDS conference that starts Monday.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment, Investing
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- Tags
- impact investing
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Weekly Roundup: Appreciating banks, emojis for health, d.light’s destination
This week in our roundup: A major new study shows mobile finance is essential, but highlights the role of old fashioned banks; the language of emojis could improve global health; and solar lamp pioneers d.light are well on their way to reaching their goal of 100 million customers by the start of the next decade.
- Categories
- Health Care
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Kiva Debuts New Direct to Social Enterprise Program
Earlier this week, microfinance platform Kiva announced the launch of its new direct to social enterprise program, which is described as a pilot program that aims to raise capital for social enterprises in a new and more efficient way.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment
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India pushes to formalize impact investments
Putting in money for social development is believed to be the responsibility of either the government—as part of the welfare for its citizens—or charitable rich individuals and institutions.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment
- Region
- South Asia
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Viewpoint: Doing Good by Investing in Sin
The recent growth in ethically and socially responsible funds now represents trillions of dollars of mandates. Many of these funds engage in negative screening – excluding investments that are involved in activities that are considered unethical or socially irresponsible such as defence, guns, alcohol, tobacco, adult entertainment, gambling, nuclear energy and, most recently, fossil fuels.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment
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Catholic Church Explores Impact Investing
The Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace and Catholic Relief Services hosted a three-day Vatican conference on Impact Investing in Rome, from June 26 to 28, with this agenda. Celebrating the “Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy” established by Pope Francis and his 2015 encyclical, “Laudato Si,” the conference was titled, “Making the Year of Mercy a Year of Impact for the Poor.”
- Categories
- Impact Assessment
- Region
- Europe & Eurasia
- Tags
- impact investing
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Impact Engine Launches $10M Fund, Betting Capitalists Can Do Well While Doing Good
Some dismiss social impact entrepreneurship as a feel-good diversion. But a group of successful investors in Chicago are throwing $10 million on the table to prove that capitalists can do well while doing good.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
- Region
- North America
- Tags
- impact investing
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Impact Investing Takes Hold on Business School Campuses
The likes of Harvard and Wharton are teaching investing for both financial and social benefit. Danielle Reed was already an impact investor when she stepped onto the campus of the University of California-Berkeley Haas School of Business in 2013 — though her family didn’t know it. They thought she worked at a nonprofit. But Reed actually worked for San Francisco-based boutique impact investing firm Imprint Capital, which was gobbled up by Goldman Sachs in 2015.
- Region
- North America
- Tags
- impact investing
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