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Why Social Enterprises Struggle to Measure Impact – And What Impact Investors Can Do About It
Impact investors typically rely on output measurements, such as total capital invested or number of people served, to assess their impact. But it's harder for investors and their investees to sustainably capture outcome data that assesses actual improvements in customers' lives. Spencer MacColl at Kiva shares data from Kiva's annual impact measurement survey, which reflects the current measurement practices and challenges of the microfinance institutions and other social enterprises Kiva supports. He explores the lessons these findings offer to impact investors and others who are working to design more effective measurement practices.
- Categories
- Finance, Impact Assessment, Investing, Social Enterprise
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Accomplishing the Impossible: Lessons on Scaling From BRAC Founder Sir Fazle Hasan Abed
Countless books and articles have addressed the challenges of going to scale in the development sector — yet a systematic approach to scaling remains out of reach. However, as Scott MacMillan at BRAC USA explains, BRAC founder Sir Fazle Hasan Abed was arguably more successful than anyone at scaling effective poverty programs. He shares insights from his new book on Abed's life and work, which sheds light on how BRAC has created and scaled programs to an extent that no other nonprofit or social enterprise has managed to achieve.
- Categories
- Education, Finance, Health Care, Social Enterprise
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Expanding Financial Opportunity to All: Kiva CEO Chris Tsakalakis Discusses the Pioneering Lending Platform’s Evolving Focus
In April of last year, Chris Tsakalakis was named CEO of the San Francisco-based microlending nonprofit Kiva, after successful leadership stints at Vivino, the world’s largest online wine marketplace, and StubHub, the world’s largest online ticket marketplace. We caught up with Tsakalakis roughly one year into his tenure at Kiva, to discuss his vision and priorities for the organization, the lessons he’s learned in his time at the helm, and his thoughts on the challenges and opportunities facing Kiva and the broader microfinance sector in the coming years.
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Press Release: 18,000 Voices, 41 Countries, and 72 Microfinance Institutions: 60 Decibels Unveils Definitive Assessment of Microfinance’s Social Impact
Microfinance is improving quality of life, increasing the resilience of low-income customers to withstand economic shocks, and reaching people without prior access to financial services without creating overindebtedness.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment
- Region
- Global
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ABC Fund Injects $3 Million into Microfinance Lending in Colombia
The Agri-Business Capital Fund (‘ABC Fund’) today announces that it has completed a USD 3 million loan to Colombia-based Finamiga, which focuses on lending to small farmers and independent workers.
- Categories
- Agriculture
- Region
- Latin America
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Protecting Clients in a Crisis: Five Lessons BRAC Learned While Re-Engineering its Microlending Strategy During COVID-19
COVID-19 has had a harsh impact on small businesses and the people who depend on them – and this impact has also affected their lending institutions. As Sahed Shams Azad at BRAC Microfinance explains, pandemic-related business closures have prevented many borrowers from making repayments, disrupting their lives – and BRAC Microfinance's nearly billion-dollar monthly lending cycle. He explores the dramatic adjustments the organization has made to its operations in response to this crisis, and how it has protected its clients' best interests throughout the process.
- Categories
- Coronavirus, Finance
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72 Microfinance Institutions Join Inaugural Microfinance Index
Impact performance measurement of microfinance institutions in 41 countries will launch in Q2 2022 with support from sector leaders.
- Categories
- Finance, Impact Assessment
- Region
- Global
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Financial Inclusion that Works for Women: The European Microfinance Award 2022
Lending to women clients has been at the center of microfinance since its modern inception. And as Joana Afonso, Gabriela Erice, Sam Mendelson and Daniel Rozas at the European Microfinance Platform point out, there has undoubtedly been progress in promoting women’s financial inclusion. But they argue that a myopic focus on outreach too often undermines the sector's understanding of the specific barriers women face. They discuss how the 2022 European Microfinance Award's focus on “Financial Inclusion that Works for Women" aims to encourage more effective gender strategies.
- Categories
- Finance
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