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NexThought Monday: Sharpening the Social Impact Lens: Why We Need a Broad, but Clear View on Impact Measurement
Despite the challenges, financial institutions can still work to understand the shape of their impact. One promising way is to organize activities around an issue, creating a social lens through which to contextualize and focus investing. From there, an organization can determine how they’re best able to address the issue, which in turn determines appropriate investing filters and social performance metrics. The case of investing through a gender lens is an encouraging example of this strategy, where investing organizes around women’s economic empowerment and access to quality healthcare.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment
- Tags
- impact investing
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Advancing Impact Investing Platforms… Promise and Peril!: We can’t always assume all investment strategies must scale
Impact Investing is not a single hammer looking for all the nails in the world—it is a diverse and dynamic approach to creating innovative applications of capital in appropriate ways to maximize potential impact. While the promise of investment platforms is, uh, promising, it is important we not start our discussion with the assumption that all investment strategies must scale!
- Categories
- Uncategorized
- Tags
- impact investing, scale
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Voices from ANDE 2012: Building a Stronger Ecosystem
At the Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs Conference last month, a good deal of focus was placed on developing the ecosystem to help social entrepreneurs connect with investors, business infrastructure and one another. One ANDE session took a close look at early stage incubation services, and the role they play in helping small and growing businesses, helping them to shape their business models along the way. Afterwards, I had a chance to meet with three leaders in this arena who are focused on social business development in India and Southeast Asia.
- Categories
- Investing
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IIX, SEAS Sign MoU To Promote Growth Of Social Enterprises In Asia Pacific
SINGAPORE, Oct 22 (Bernama) -- Impact Investment Exchange Asia (IIX) and the Sustainable Energy Association of Singapore (SEAS), today signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to solidify joint efforts to promote the Social Enterprise (SE) space in the sustainable energy sector.
- Categories
- Environment
- Region
- Asia Pacific
- Tags
- impact investing
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Egypt’s NBD allocates EGP 200 million to finance micro-enterprises
National Bank for Development (NBD) has allocated EGP 200 million towards providing funding for small and micro enterprises, and designed a comprehensive range of funding programmes that are Shari'ah-compliant.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
- Region
- North Africa & Near East
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Israel’s Rather Different Social Network
ISTANBUL—One of the more unusual presentations at the Webit conference here was from Israel Venture Network, a 10-year social entrepreneurship network targeting some of Israel’s deprived and excluded citizens, in a talk given by the former tech Chief Executive Isabel Maxwell.
- Categories
- Investing
- Region
- North Africa & Near East
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Weekly Roundup: E+Co’s Slow Burn and What it Means for Impact Investing
E+Co’s effective demise raises questions beyond those of the immediate management, governance, due diligence and investment squabbles. Those factors are relevant of course, but the central point illustrated by the E+Co story is what it means for the impact investing sector writ large.
- Categories
- Energy
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A Missing Opportunity for Investment: Bringing the Bedroom to the Boardroom
During SOCAP 2012, impact investing funds and social impact bonds were among mechanisms for bringing access to family planning to scale. But the first step is simply naming family planning as an impact investing priority. This requires moving the issue from the margins to the center of social causes.
- Categories
- Health Care