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Mark Zuckerberg Responds To Skeptics, Elaborates On LLC Plan
After new parents Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan revealed their plans this week to give away 99 percent of their Facebook shares, a firestorm of controversy erupted. On the one hand, many people -- including Bill Gates and former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg -- praised the couple for the generous gesture. Others, however, questioned their motives.
- Categories
- Investing
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The World’s First Impact Focused Equity Crowdfunding Portal Launches to Fund Pan African Start Ups
Small and medium-sized enterprises (SME's) are the primary job creation engine in Africa, accounting for over 95% of firms and 60%-70% of employment. Yet, SME's on the continent report access to finance as the biggest obstacle to growth. Malaik, an impact-focused equity crowdfunding portal, test launched today, to connect investors interested in impact investment opportunities and entrepreneurs raising equity finance. Malaik offers the global community clear and well-documented opportunities for high impact investing in African businesses, a chance to participate in Africa's growth story.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment, Investing
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Impact Investing Done Right
Impact investing—the art of creating portfolios that earn market-rate returns while also seeking to advance social or environmental aims—is a mercurial child of the 21st century. Hard to pin down with precise definitions and interpreted in a variety of ways, impact investing is nonetheless a fast-growing force below the surface of our financial markets, effectively blurring the lines between philanthropy and investing.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment, Investing
- Tags
- impact investing
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Putting the Good in Greed
Last April, two months after being named the first global head for impact investing at BlackRock, Deborah Winshel flew to San Francisco to meet with Ryan LaFond, a hedge fund manager at the firm. LaFond and a team of researchers had spent two years studying whether algorithms used to predict fluctuations in the stock market could also spot a company whose business is doing good. Identifying responsible corporate citizens was part of the reason Winshel left her job as president of the poverty-fighting Robin Hood Foundation; she believes Wall Street has a role to play in fixing some of the world’s most urgent problems.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment, Investing
- Tags
- impact investing
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OPINION: The Impact Investing Illusion
For many who have been working in the social enterprise space for a long time, nothing has been quite so startling as the recent lightning fast acceleration of the so-called "impact" investing movement. In the U.S., much of the traction for the movement has been supplied by the rise of new "hybrid" legal forms such as the Benefit Corporation and the L3C, and the spread of the B Corp brand.
Some view these developments as the long-awaited key to scaling solutions to the world's most intractable problems. I'm not so sure about that. In fact, I'm worried as hell. Let me tell you why.- Categories
- Investing
- Tags
- impact investing
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Vodafone India Looks to Double Impact of CSR Programme
Vodafone India wants to double the impact of its corporate social responsibility (CSR) programme. Last year, around 50 employees volunteered for CSR initiatives, working for eight weeks at 25 NGOs and impacting about 1 million lives.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment, Investing
- Region
- South Asia
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NexThought Monday: Want to Work at a Social Enterprise? Stand out with these skills
So what do you need to stand out as a job applicant to social enterprises? In our experience here at Impact Business Leaders, where we’ve helped more than 70 professionals find new roles in social enterprises, there are a few key skill sets that have set our most successful participants apart.
- Categories
- Education, Social Enterprise
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Unitus Seed Fund to Raise $50 Million in Second Innings
Unitus Seed Fund, a 'social impact investor' that invests at very early seed stages, says it is raising a second fund of $50 million.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment, Investing
- Region
- South Asia
- Tags
- impact investing
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