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A New Space Race – To Grow Social Enterprise
Returning to San Francisco from Milan where I had met some of the 700 international delegates attending the Social Enterprise World Forum, I found my mind wandering to the 'space race' of the 1950s and 1960s. Space became a key battlefield of the Cold War. It was a proving ground for which political-economic system -- the U.S. or the Soviet Union -- had the right to claim its prowess.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
- Region
- Europe & Eurasia
- Tags
- impact investing
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Needed: Naïve People with Stupid Ideas: An interview with Intellecap co-founder and director Vineet Rai
When Intellecap was founded in 2002, few people would have predicted that it would become a social business and investing powerhouse. According to co-founder and director Vineet Rai, the company’s early years were defined by failure. He discusses the lessons he learned from these failures (and subsequent successes), Intellecap’s unique model and future plans, and many other topics in this wide-ranging video Q&A.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment, Social Enterprise
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Wall Street not giving up on U.S. social impact bonds
Wall Street firms like Deutsche Bank , Santander Bank and Bank of America are still interested in backing U.S. social impact bonds, despite the failure of the first such initiative.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment
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OPINION: We Need to Prove Impact Investing Makes a Difference
While measuring impact is complicated, investors, grant makers, and nonprofit organization need to have some way to assess, manage, and communicate their real impact.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment
- Tags
- impact investing
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Mutual Funds in India Invest $157M in Secured Debentures of Microfinance Institutions
Several mutual funds based in India, including Industrial Credit and Investment Corporation of India (ICICI) Prudential Mutual Fund, Housing Development Finance Corporation (HDFC) Mutual Fund, Kotak Mutual Fund, Reliance Mutual Fund and State Bank of India (SBI) Mutual Fund, recently invested in secured debentures issued by several Indian microfinance institutions (MFIs). The issuers include Equitas Microfinance (Equitas); Janalakshmi Financial Services (JFS); SKS Microfinance (SKS) and Ujjivan Financial Services (Ujjivan). Although the individual transaction amounts are not available, the investments by the mutual funds total approximately INR 10 billion (USD 157 million). The debentures bear coupon rates of 11.5 up to 13 percent, approximately 3 to 4 percent above than highly rated securities issued by other Indian companies. The securities are backed by receivables and fixed assets owned by the MFIs.
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- Uncategorized
- Region
- South Asia
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A New Model of Health Workforce Training
A new model of health workforce training has the potential to be an innovative, cost-effective, catalytic initiative that can build national health systems, empower women and make itself obsolete in a decade.
- Categories
- Environment, Impact Assessment
- Tags
- impact investing
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East Africa Emerges as Global Hub for Impact Investing
Investments focused on fostering social or environmental goals are playing an increasing role in East Africa, which a new report says is a global center for so-called impact investing.
- Categories
- Environment, Impact Assessment
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- Tags
- impact investing
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Social Impact Bonds Are Coming to the Tropics
Recent developments indicate that Latin America may become a robust new frontier market for social impact bonds, with a rich set of multiple-player ecosystems.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment
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