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Press release: Upaya Social Ventures Will Fund Its Next Investments from A Recoverable Grant Pool
Upaya Announced $2M to expand its job-creating investments, including an innovative $1M Pool of Recoverable Grants that will be used to fund its next investments; the first term sheet has been presented to an agribusiness enterprise.
- Categories
- Investing
- Region
- South Asia
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Oxfam appoints Sriskandarajah as chief executive
Oxfam GB has appointed Dhananjayan Sriskandarajah as its new chief executive, taking over from Mark Goldring “around the end of 2018”. Sriskandarajah is currently secretary general and chief executive of CIVICUS, the Johannesburg-based global alliance of civil society organisations and activists with members in more than 180 countries.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Health Care
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Symbiotic and Strategic: Why Businesses Should Embrace Nonprofit Partnerships
Imagine losing your sight. Now imagine losing your sight in one of the poorest regions in the world. With few quality eye doctors, hospitals or clinics, your chances of getting quality care would be small, and your opportunities to get an education or earn a steady income would slowly evaporate. Orbis CEO Bob Ranck explores how for-profit partners are helping his nonprofit tackle this issue - and why this sort of partnership makes good economic and business sense for both sides.
- Categories
- Health Care
- Tags
- nonprofits, partnerships
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Cambodia Establishes New Fintech Association
“We aspire to build Cambodia into the leading Indochine country for Fintech Innovation and Investment in the region. We target to achieve this by collaborating with stakeholders to create the best possible regulatory environment, and by fostering an ecosystem of supportive partners and networks so Fintech companies can thrive and grow in Cambodia.”
- Categories
- Finance
- Region
- Asia Pacific
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Spinning Off a Tech Firm from a Nonprofit: How to Solve the ‘Innovator’s Dilemma’
Social impact technology startups capture a lot of media attention – leading to the impression that, on the whole, most are successful. In reality, failure rates are high. Brent Chism, CEO of TaroWorks, discusses the reasons why these businesses often falter. He also shares how his company and its parent organization, Grameen Foundation, were able to sidestep common pitfalls through smart funding strategies, well-timed adjustments and wise managerial choices.
- Categories
- Social Enterprise, Technology
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Press release: VisionFund Cambodia Sold To Woori Bank of Korea
In line with VisionFund International’s strategy, it will redeploy the funds to other microfinance institutions across its network that are at earlier stages of development, in markets less wellserved by microfinance providers and where VisionFund, as an early entrant offering microfinance services can impact more vulnerable families, living in rural communities with limited ability to access financial services.
- Region
- Asia Pacific
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The Funder Problem: Good Intentions Aren’t Enough
Despite their good intentions, funders are often the biggest barriers to social enterprises or nonprofits achieving impact. Open Road Alliance, a philanthropic initiative that gives emergency grants to impact-focused organizations, gathered and analyzed five years of data about roadblocks faced by over 100 grantees. Nearly half of the problems the group found were caused by funders. Laurie Michaels describes the three categories of funder-related barriers that account for the most frequent challenges – and offers some surprisingly easy fixes.
- Categories
- Social Enterprise
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The Partnership Nightmare: What’s Wrong with the Social Sector’s Approach to Funding – And How to Fix It
Whether it's due to misaligned expectations, mutual distrust or power imbalances, interactions between social impact organizations and their funders can be nightmarish – for both sides. Social sector advocates Jessamyn Shams-Lau, Jane Leu and Vu Le have written a new book about these challenges, called "Unicorns Unite." In this Q&A, they discuss what's gone wrong – and how to make it better. Subscribers to NextBillion’s weekly e-newsletter can read an excerpt of the book throughout June.
- Categories
- Investing, Social Enterprise