-
Four Steps to Avoid Dead-End Impact Investing Leads
Dead-end leads are frustrating for both entrepreneurs and investors. They involve wasted time and resources, disappointment, and the erosion of relationships – and sometimes the exchange of capital that's a poor fit for the entrepreneur’s business. To prevent these issues, the Center for the Advancement of Social Entrepreneurship (CASE) has created an online toolkit to help impact entrepreneurs identify their top investor targets. Kimberly Langsam and Cathy Clark at CASE summarize the simple four-step process – and CASE will host a free online demo with more information on March 13 and 19.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment, Investing
-
Impact Investing Lessons for NGOs: Mercy Corps’ Scott Onder Discusses its Social Venture Fund
We don’t typically associate NGOs, particularly humanitarian organizations like Mercy Corps, with impact investing. But since 2015, Mercy Corps has run the Social Venture Fund, which invests in and accelerates the growth of innovative, scalable ventures that can positively impact millions in the developing world. NextBillion interviewed Scott Onder, managing director of the fund, about Mercy Corps' experiences as an investor, the rationale behind this ground-breaking approach – and lessons for other NGOs that may be considering a similar move.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment, Investing
-
Breaking the Catch-22 of Poverty: What’s Next for the Graduation Model?
People in extreme poverty are trapped in a catch-22: They're poor because they can't build a livelihood, and they can't build a livelihood because they're overwhelmed by the crises of poverty. The graduation approach can break this cycle – but though research has demonstrated its effectiveness, it's difficult to scale. Evelyn Stark of MetLife Foundation and Jaya Sarkar of Trickle Up discuss Trickle Up's efforts to adapt the model to achieve mass scale and sustainability.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment
-
Why Do Low-income Women Entrepreneurs Fail? New Research Provides Some Answers
Everybody loves a business success story, so research on entrepreneurship tends to focus on the Facebooks and Ubers of the world. But in reality, new ventures are more likely to fail than to succeed, and there's a dearth of research on the reasons why – particularly when the entrepreneurs are women in emerging markets. The Failure Institute joined with Pro Mujer to study the failures of hundreds of small businesses run by low-income women in Mexico. Leticia Gasca of the Failure Institute explores the four main causes of failure these women faced.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment
-
‘Eye-opening’ Impact Assessment: How Benchmarks Can Boost Social and Business Outcomes
For the last ten years, Acumen has been investing in off-grid energy companies in the developing world. In its new Energy Impact Report, the impact investing nonprofit talked directly to thousands of customers about their experiences - good and bad - with these companies’ energy products. Acumen's Kat Harrison discusses the survey's revealing results.
- Categories
- Energy, Impact Assessment, Investing
-
London Stock Exchange Responds To ‘Investor Demand’ Launching ESG Reporting Guidance
The London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) has issued guidance, through its Global Sustainable Investment Centre, which sets out recommendations for "good practice" in Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) reporting. The global guide brought calls today from a member of the World Bank Group for other stock exchanges around the world to follow the bourse’s example and lead.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment, Investing
- Region
- Europe & Eurasia
- Tags
- ESG, impact measurement
-
Viewpoint: The Next Frontier in Social Impact Measurement Isn’t Measurement at All
If we want social capital markets to fund the social sector effectively, we need to use social impact data effectively when making investment decisions. And investment decision-making almost always requires that we compare social impact data across locations, programs, or organizations. This is difficult, because contexts, missions, definitions, measurement approaches, and values differ. It’s always apples to oranges, and this “comparison problem” not only affects good decision-making, but also our ability to report on impact at the investment portfolio level.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment
-
Building a Collaborative Social Impact Measurement Operating System
If social sector organizations truly want to compete against the large corporations, they must build an efficient performance management system where even the small organization can derive value and understand their limitations.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment
Subscribe to Our 'Business in Global Development' Newsletter!
Our new weekly LinkedIn newsletter features NextBillion's latest original articles, along with curated news, jobs, bizdev opportunities and events from our recent coverage of impact-focused business in emerging markets.
We respect your privacy. Your information is safe and will never be shared.
Don't miss out. Subscribe today.