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Special features
Case study – Media Development Loan Fund
Working in Africa, Asia, Latin America, Russia and the CIS, and the Balkans, the Media Development Loan Fund (MDLF) seeks to secure a strong and independent press in countries with a history of media oppression. …
Case study – GEXSI – making development investment safe
Greater access to finance would help thousands of viable small, grassroots enterprises engaged in local development and generating employment in varied fields. More needs to be done to make this happen, and to make development …
Case study – Grameen Danone: a case for ‘hybrid’ models
Over the last decade, the terms socially responsible investment and corporate social responsibility have become common currency, yet no one has fully translated them into practice. Mainstream SRI-oriented investors fail to see that genuinely implemented …
Foundation investment managers, it’s up to you
Foundations pay out only a tiny proportion of their asset value, typically around 5 per cent, in the form of grants. This begs the obvious question of what happens to the other 95 per cent. …
Developing an equity capital market for social purpose businesses
The rise of social entrepreneurship has resulted in an increasing number of businesses seeking to maximize both social and financial returns. Like traditional businesses, they need equity capital to grow and achieve their objectives. With …
Towards ‘socializing’ mainstream capital markets
Although there is a strong inclination to treat ‘MRI-type’ social enterprises in developing countries with kid gloves and to use warm and cuddly adjectives such as ‘soft’ and ‘concessionary’ when talking about financing for them, …
Being the change we want to see?
Oxfam’s mission, to work with others to overcome poverty and suffering, is a huge and ambitious one, and any organization that sets its purpose out so clearly must start from a strong value base and …
IBM’s model for corporate philanthropy
As an innovation company, IBM’s success over its 100-year history has been dependent on constant change. Development of the IT industry may appear evolutionary, as a series of developments based on new scientific discoveries were …
Not learning from beneficiaries
At the risk of being contradicted by other articles on this issue’s theme, I want to highlight one critically important way that donors are not learning – from the intended beneficiaries of the work that …
Beyond learning for learning’s sake
Foundation staff and board members should embrace learning not for its own sake but as a means towards improved performance and greater positive impact. It is easy to endorse the rhetoric of the learning organization, …