How do we kick start sector development? What are the building blocks of a sector-based approach to impact investing? Omidyar Network examines the roles, risks and returns of early-stage innovators, market scalers and infrastructure organizations that contribute to accelerating an industry sector.
Read more on the Stanford Social Innovation Review website.
Join the conversation on Twitter by following #primingthepump
As the impact investing industry marks five years since the term ‘impact investing’ was coined, Omidyar Network has developed a series of six articles that highlight key issues and opportunities for the industry. Presented in partnership with Stanford Social Innovation Review, the online series, “Priming the Pump for Impact Investing”, begins today and extends through October 2.
Omidyar Network makes the case for a fundamental shift from a firm-based to a sector-based approach to impact investing. By re-directing investments, re-evaluating the role of subsidies and policies, and re-examining returns across the investment continuum, we believe that impact investors can accelerate greater social and financial returns impacting millions of people worldwide.
Join Omidyar Network and the SOCAP’12 community in this dialogue about the approaches and ideas that can help prime the pump to spark, nurture and scale new sectors.
The first article in the series, “Sectors, Not Just Firms,” can be read on the Stanford Social Innovation Review website.
Join the conversation on Twitter by following #primingthepump.
Hundreds of thousands of people are working all around the world to fix problems that have been created by our consumer-driven society. Many of these people can help you with what you need to make your initiative more successful.
GroAction matches change agents (you) with other leaders who can help you make a positive impact in the world.
You know how difficult it can be to get your initiative truly thriving. If you were a member of the GroAction Network you could make the connections you need that will help you make more money + impact. >>> Read Full GroAction Press Release
The William James Foundation’s Sustainable Business Plan Competition offers a total of $150,000 worth of services & cash to the best new for-profit plans with social and/or environmental goals. Entrants can be any age or anywhere in the world, but must be starting or growing for-profit companies that are either pre-revenue, or are within five years of their first revenues. All entrants who are accepted into the competition receive an average of 20 pages of feedback around. Deadline for 5-8 page summaries is Oct. 12.
Enter discount code ‘SOCAP20′ for 20% off application fee!
Life at the BoP study is a joint work of the team at Movirtu and their strategic research partners, TNS. They listened in detail to nearly a hundred end users in Senegal, Tanzania and India during the course of this work. They selected ‘leading edge’ users: those likely to be engaged with and influential in technology. They spoke with women entrepreneurs, smallholder farmers, and youth.
There are many stories and characters here: a Senegalese student who lives far from her family, prays every day and is as rapturously devout in her study as she is in her life. There are a group of teens in Coimbatore, a city akin to the UK’s Manchester, where boys can quote you an ad for the latest megapixel phone. Women entrepreneurs in Senegal shake their heads and commiserate about the increased cost of living.
>>> Learn more and watch their video ‘Introduction to Life at the BoP study’