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Weekly Roundup 10-23-15: Impact Investing Recovers from ‘The Cooties’
Most people don’t associate Department of Labor policy changes with excitement. But this week’s announcement of changes to the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) has primed the impact investing movement to party like it’s 1994. We explore the move in this roundup, along with some inspiring words on what every social entrepreneur should ask themselves, and some critical points on business school ethics.
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- Impact Assessment, Investing
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The State of Assessment: Moving the conversation forward to accelerate value creation (Part 2 of 2)
Heather Esper and Yaquta Kanchwala Fatehi of the William Davidson Institute say it's time to stop debating whether businesses should assess social, economic and/or environmental impact, and move on to a conversation about how to extract the most value. They even offer five core activities to accelerate that value.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment
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Impact Investing Goes to School: What researchers have learned about the sector – and how much they still don’t know
Cathy Clark, the founder and director of the i3 initiative, has been working at the crossroads of academic research and impact investing for over two decades. We caught up with her at last week's SOCAP15 conference to discuss where the field is heading, how it's being impacted by the academic world, and how much researchers still don't understand.
- Categories
- Education, Impact Assessment, Social Enterprise
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SOCAP Recap: OPTIMISM … With a Dash of Skepticism:
With warplanes thundering overhead (seriously), the crowd at Thursday's SOCAP sessions conducted a stimulating and wide-ranging discussion of the many facets of social business and investing. But among the usual positivity was a distinct note of impatience. Our editors discuss what they saw and heard at yesterday's proceedings.
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- Health Care, Impact Assessment, Social Enterprise
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NexThought Monday – Applying Wall Street Ideas to NGOs in Rural India: A closer look at the first education impact bond
Business and financial buzzwords that have long dominated boardrooms and global conference calls - like “make vs. buy” or “risk and return” – are entering the landscape of NGOs. The latest manifestation of this is a new type of bond for development programs that leverages investor and risk dynamics typically found in business deals. The very first of these “development impact bonds” in education launched in rural India last year.
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- Impact Assessment
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F.B. Heron Foundation President Clara Miller is Stepping Down: Watch our 2015 Video Interview
In June, the F.B. Heron Foundation announced that it was moving 100 percent of its assets into impact investments, aiming to complete the process by the end of 2017. On September 30, the foundation's president Clara Miller joined NextBillion for a live Google Hangout. We discussed Heron’s bold move – and the lessons it has learned from its efforts to align its capital with its mission. You can view the replay in this post.
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- Impact Assessment
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‘Financial Inclusion for Sustainable Development’: European Microfinance Week Nov. 18th – 20th
European Microfinance Week is a major annual event featuring high level, in-depth discussions by all sectors of the European microfinance community. The conference, which will take place Nov. 18th – 20th in Luxembourg, will welcome over 400 top professionals in the industry, from several dozen countries. NextBillion will be a media partner at the event, providing live tweeting, blog coverage and interviews with key participants.
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- Finance, Impact Assessment, Technology
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The Risks of Government-Led Financial Inclusion: Why agent networks in India need to move beyond government mandates
Over the years, the government of India has facilitated financial access by promoting account opening through various programs. And, at first glance, some of the numbers associated with the government's inclusion mandates look good. But a more detailed look reveals a bleak picture that includes high agent attrition and low account activity rates.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment
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