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Scaling your Social Enterprise – While Handling your Success: A Q&A with Microfinance Pioneer Alex Counts
Few people know more about the opportunities and pitfalls of scaling a social enterprise than Alex Counts. A seminal figure in microfinance, he led Grameen Foundation's growth from a $6,000 start-up to a $20 million powerhouse, while playing a key role in the often turbulent expansion of the broader microfinance sector. NextBillion caught up with Counts to discuss his latest book, “Changing the World Without Losing Your Mind.” The book – and this Q&A – provide essential advice for social impact leaders working to grow their organizations – and dealing with the new tensions scale can bring.
- Categories
- Entrepreneurship, Finance
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Overcoming a Roadblock to Scale: How Can We Attract Top Talent to Inclusive Businesses?
Inclusive business is a key way to create sustainable livelihoods for the global poor, but the sector is hitting a roadblock: finding employees. The growing number of inclusive businesses has meant that the demand for talent is outstripping supply. And as existing inclusive businesses scale up, the talent they require has become more specialized. So it's no surprise that in a recent survey of over 100 prominent social enterprises, talent was flagged as a top challenge. Christian Jahn and Susann Tischendorf at the Inclusive Business Action Network discusses the problem – and some emerging solutions.
- Categories
- Entrepreneurship
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Are We Actually Making Progress on the SDGs?
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) outline 17 areas where we need to make a collective effort and provide a useful sustainability framework for business and other actors. We have a decade until the 2030 deadline and businesses are increasingly committing to the goals in a public way.
- Categories
- Entrepreneurship, Impact Assessment
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Award-Winning Startup Targets Affordable Medicine for Every African
MPharma is one of five social businesses to receive awards from the Skoll Foundation at this week’s Skoll World Forum, Britain’s leading event for social enterprise.
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- Health Care
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Tackling the water crisis will be just as hard as it sounds
More than 2 billion people around the world lack what the UN considers “safely managed drinking water supplies,” and millions of people across the United States—as much as a quarter of the country, by some estimates—drink water contaminated beyond legal levels.
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- Environment, WASH
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Adapt or Die: Accelerating Growth Amid a Rapidly Changing Energy Landscape
The clean cooking sector has made incredible strides in the past decade, with bilateral organizations and the development community working together to create standardized environmental impact goals. Now the industry is facing a new set of scaling challenges, say Jessica Alderman and Ron Bills of Envirofit International. The two share advice for enterprises seeking to level up, including how to avoid mission creep.
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- Energy
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Viewpoint: Why CEOs are still missing the point on social impact
According to the survey, while American business leaders feel more pressure than ever to speak out on social issues, they still would rather not. Instead, they’d prefer to focus on the bottom line: a plurality say their most important communications goal this year is to sell their products and services.
- Categories
- Entrepreneurship
- Region
- North America
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Unpacking NextBillion’s Reader Survey: What the Responses Show – And How They’ll Shape Our Coverage
You likely noticed that NextBillion has been conducting a reader survey over the past few months. But you may not have noticed that the survey recently concluded. In the spirit of transparency – and because we find the results interesting – we’ve compiled some highlights from the 500+ responses. We also share our initial reactions to this reader feedback, and discuss how this survey data might impact new editorial directions on the site.
- Categories
- Entrepreneurship, Finance, NextBillion Originals, Technology
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