The right software can make outcomes measurement and evaluation a lot easier. How to select the best outcomes measurement software for your organisation.
(Photo: Ali, a customer of Esoko Networks, an Acumen investee) This year Acumen launched the Lean Data Initiative, which is experimenting with more cost- aâŠ
Our manifesto begins, âit starts by standing with the poor.â Yet for good reasons, the sector has found it challenging to measure which customers are actually being served through social impact investments â getting accurate data on incomes is notoriously difficult and the logistical challenge and cost of conducting surveys in person prohibitive. This year, âŠ
Realizing the full potential of this evolving sector requires three things.
Impact investing is not just a new, undiscovered corner of the investing world. It has the potential to join traditional investing and government aid and philanthropy as a third way to deploy capital to address social and environmental issues. A fully developed impact investing sector will incorporate the best features of marketsârigor and speed; quickly evolving business models; strong revenue models; and access to capital as ventures show signs of successâwith the best features of government aid and philanthropyâserving unmet needs; reaching populations that are bypassed or exploited by the markets; investing in goods with positive externalities; and leveraging public subsidy to extend the reach of an interventionâto solve social problems.Â
1. NEED TIME
First, impact investing needs time to develop. This is a nascent sector where entrepreneurs and investors are still figuring out business models, developing new financial products, and proving exit strategies and exit multiples, and only a handful of players are using agreed-upon metrics for assessing social impact. Â Whether itâs solar lighting, mobile authentication, micro-insurance, mobile banking, drinking water, urban sanitation, low-income housing or primary health care, entrepreneurs need time to test, modify, and refine business models. Â These entrepreneurs are looking for support from risk-seeking investors who have an appetite for failure, are willing to be pioneers, and who value the social returns theyâre creating.
2. NEED Â A FRAMEWORK TO MEASURE SUCCESS
Second, in addition to time, the sector needs a framework to measure success, one that makes sense of the sectorâs inherent diversity. Â Akin to the Morningstar Style Box, such a framework would allow an investor to easily identify best-in-class social and financial performance across and within the various sub-sectors of impact investing.
3. NEED STANDARDIZED TOOLS TO MEASURE IMPACT
Third, the sector needs practical, widely-adopted, and standardized tools to measure social impact. Â This is easier to describe than it is to do. Â Although investors value both financial and social return today, the sector only measures financial return well. The big, unspoken risk is that weâll end up ranking and sorting impact funds by the only thing they can be ranked and sorted by â money â without assessing or valuing the different levels of social impact these funds have.
What the sector needs is enthusiasm about the future and patience around the time it will take to get there. Â In traditional investing there is a premium on liquidity, low beta, and lower risk, all of which justify higher or lower returns. In impact investing, we need to find a way to place that same premium on social impact by valuing the public good being created â just like we do in early stage R&D in science, IT, health, and biotechnology. We allowed microfinance and the venture capital industry the time and space to develop over a few decades. Surely we can do the same for impact investing.
Smarty Pants is a full-service market research and strategic consulting firm dedicated to helping corporate and non-profit clients better understand and connect with youth and families. We are a woman-owned business staffed with research and marketing experts who bring experience, talent and passion to every initiative.
At 33, he's already being called the next Charles Darwin. Source: Rachel Tine for OZY A young MIT physicist may be close to figuring out the scientific origins of life. And he thinks God had a hand in it all.
These are the region's most promising startups -- the scrappy budding businesses poised to hit it big. They've got brilliant ideas and excellent execution.
This Week in Social Entrepreneurship: for the first time, Y Combinator opens its seed accelerator up to non-profits
NYU Reynolds is hosting Alan Hilburg, one of the leading authorities on re-imagining brands, and special guest Shaheen Sheik-Sadhal, founder of Esse Law Group for the Realistic Entrepreneurial Actionable Learning (R.E.A.L) Workshop Series. This workshop is part of the New York University Reynolds Program in Social Entrepreneurship. Registration just opened for this event, which takes place December 10th at NYU Wagner.
Y Combinator, THE American seed accelerator, has opened applications for the upcoming winter class, and for the first time it has opened applications for nonprofits. Y combinator sees the money put into the nonprofits as a donation and they will have no financial interest in them, unlike the for-profits they invest in. Does your non-profit need seed funding? Apply now for the chance at an opportunity to make your non-profit grow with the support of Y Combinator.
The Ogunte Global Tribal Meetup is an open, free, informal networking event aimed at women running social businesses or women involved in activism, social innovation studies, and socially responsible actions. Join them on Thursday afternoon, September 19th, in Kingâs Cross, UK.
Shawn D. Ross
I am a Northwest Native living in Washington State. A graduate of Washington State University and University of Phoenix with degrees in Architecture and Education I write about social, cultural, and personal improvement on the StartSomeGood Blog and SDRinspire. I am also a filmmaker and owner of Giraffe and Penguin Productions, a single daddy of two beautiful children, avid reader, writer, and hat wearer (Not in that picture but believe me, I wear âem). I am currently at work on my first feature length documentary. Follow me @shawndross and visit my websites: sdrinspire.tumblr.com and giraffeandpenguinproductions.tumblr.com.
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