-
Why Global Social Enterprise Needs to Become Its Own Asset Class
Ashoka Fellow David Green makes the case that in order for the global social enterprise sector to truly grow, it must become its own asset class. That means taking the form of a pro-profit social entity with the right type of governance to insure fidelity to a social mission, while being supported with the right kind of financing.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment, Social Enterprise
-
Embracing Failure at the Harvard Social Enterprise Conference
In business, failure is part of the game, but this reality is often taboo in the social sector. At Root Cause, Phil Buchanan of Tactical Philanthropy provided his thoughts on the importance of "learning from history" from successful philanthropic cases.
- Categories
- Social Enterprise
- Tags
- failure, social enterprise
-
Guest Post: Listening to the Voices of Experience
Acumen Fund created the Global Fellows Program because we wanted to build a core group of leaders from across the globe who not only had the intellect, passion and business skills, but also the experience of serving low-income consumers in some of the most challenging environments in the world. Last month I got a glimpse into that complexity.
- Categories
- Education, Social Enterprise
-
NextThought: Quick Reflections from Harvard’s Social Enterprise Conference
The students of Harvard met and exceeded expectations at their annual Social Enterprise Conference through a healthy mix of panel discussions, hands-on workshops and a student-driven entrepreneurial spirit that was palpable in every hallway.
- Categories
- Finance, Social Enterprise
-
Advancing Healthcare With the BoP: To Emerging Markets and Back Again
What happens when a large U.S.-based multinational company wants to get a product to market in the BoP? For Pfizer and GE, the approach is two-fold: part market-based and part philanthropic but both closely linked to market objectives of the firms.
- Categories
- Health Care, Social Enterprise
-
Detroit: Emerging from the Ground Up
A couple of weeks ago, I attended a unique social enterprise conference, Revitalization and Business. Its focus was not on a continent, a region, or a nation in need. Rather, it focused on one single American city-Detroit, Michigan, where small projects and individuals are making powerful waves from the ground up.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment, Social Enterprise
-
Aftershocks of Egypt and Social Enterprise’s Role
Throughout the Muslim world, echoes of the Egyptian chant "Leave, Leave, Leave" fall on far-from-deaf ears. The simple fact that pumping fists in Tunisia preceded pitchforks in Egypt is a harbinger of the aftershocks to come. The burden is on enterprise to ensure that when the dust does finally settle, those very US dollars start to flow freely.
- Categories
- Education, Social Enterprise
-
Participative Innovation: The Transition to a New Model of Social Capitalism
Today, we have a much more complex inter-sector reality. It isn’t unusual to find businesses that act as NGOs, private banks that give donations, development banks that set interest rates above market prices and NGOs implementing profitable projects. One wonders if the sectors are overlapping one another or if they have simply become obsolete.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment, Social Enterprise