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Decentralizing Data Management Across ESG and Impact Investing: How Blockchain Innovation Can Address the Data Gap – And the Ratings Controversy
ESG and impact investing have gone mainstream, with US $53 trillion – one-third of global assets under management – projected to be classified as ESG investments by 2025. But as Miriam Davidovic at RAZ Finance points out, investors can't direct their capital toward sustainable businesses without reliable data – and there are growing questions about whether current ESG data and ratings practices are capturing real impact. She argues that a decentralized approach to ESG and impact data management is needed, and explores several blockchain-based innovations that empower individuals to provide trustworthy, transparent, anonymous impact data.
- Categories
- Investing, Technology
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Supporting Financial Health Startups: Four Lessons for Impact Investors, Foundations and Governments
Over the past few years, Village Capital has run Finance Forward, a global coalition to support early-stage entrepreneurs building tech-enabled solutions around financial health. Village Capital CEO Allie Burns shares highlights from a new report that analyzed data from the 1,000+ companies that applied to the program around the world. The report paints a picture of the global state of financial health startups, and offers lessons for impact investors, foundations and government leaders who hope to grow the ecosystem for financial health innovation.
- Categories
- Finance, Investing, Technology
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Linking the Needs of Customers and Providers: A Framework for Effective Financial Health Measurement
Many financial service providers (FSPs) want to improve the financial health of their low-income users, but they often struggle to measure it. According to Nishant Kumar and Sonal Agrawal at Lakshya, one key challenge is that many FSPs don't see the business benefits of investing in financial health measurement. They share three principles that can help providers understand the distinct needs of different user groups, and develop a measurement methodology that links customers with interventions that impact their financial health – while boosting the FSPs' bottom line.
- Categories
- Finance, Impact Assessment
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Impact Reporting for All: Developing an Approach That Works for Both SMEs and Their Funders
In 2020, nearly $2.3 trillion was invested with the intention of generating positive social or environmental impact – but impact measurement was only used across 28% of that total amount. What is stopping the managers of the other 72% of impact capital from measuring their investments’ impact – and how can those obstacles be addressed? Kevin Horgan, Geoff Kendall and Joanna Robertson at Future-Fit Foundation explain why the difficulty of impact reporting is at the heart of this issue, and present a solution that they believe could revolutionize the impact investment landscape.
- Categories
- Environment, Impact Assessment, Social Enterprise
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How Blockchain Can Support Social Impact: Three Innovative Use Cases that Highlight its Potential
When it comes to blockchain technology, cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin seem to dominate the headlines, whereas blockchain itself – cryptocurrencies’ underlying technology – often gets overlooked. But according to Raj Jain at the Social Finance Fund, blockchain may actually have a more compelling future than cryptocurrency – and the technology is flourishing in a variety of different spaces, including the social impact sector. He highlights three organizations that are putting blockchain to innovative use in social impact.
- Categories
- Investing, Technology
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Four Insights for Better Measurement: What Businesses Can Learn from the Public and Nonprofit Sectors
In the public and nonprofit sectors, comprehensive monitoring, evaluation and learning approaches are increasingly common – but many small and growing businesses (SGBs) lack the time and resources for these practices. Heather Esper, director of the Performance Measurement and Improvement team at the William Davidson Institute, shares four key data collection and measurement insights from the public and nonprofit worlds that businesses — particularly SGBs — can leverage to improve their decision-making and maximize the social and financial value of their data.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment
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The Pandemic is Not Over for Social Enterprises: Here’s How Impact Investors and Other Funders Can Help Them Survive COVID-19
Social enterprises are developing innovative, sustainable and scalable solutions to the world's deepest economic and social issues, but many of these businesses are at risk of disappearing due to COVID-19. According to Alethia Kang at Acceso and Luke Seidle at Kiva, impact investors and other funders must step up to keep the social enterprise field afloat. They share five steps funders can take to bolster these businesses, and discuss how the partnership between their two organizations illustrates the value of flexible funding support during a crisis.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Coronavirus, Investing, Social Enterprise
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Press Release: Inaccurate Solar Production Estimates Impact All Players in the African Power Value Chain
CrossBoundary Energy has released a report, Measuring Solar Irradiation in Africa: A case for change which shows how the biases in the estimation of solar production in Africa can lead to reduction in savings for African businesses.
- Categories
- Energy
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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