India is becoming a hotbed for entrepreneurship and innovation. Recognizing the potential to harness this spirit to leverage market forces to help a large untapped population break the cycle of poverty and deprivation, the Indian Philanthropy Forum is launching a partnership with Rockefeller Foundation to bring philanthropy and impact investing together before an Indian audience.

In January 2013, Dasra will hold the Impact Investing Forum in Bangalore, India. The forum is part of Rockefeller Foundation’s global effort to promote impact investing in emerging markets – they are organizing similar events in South Africa and Brazil in the coming year. The purpose is to spark conversation on the impact investing industry, which invests in social businesses and NGOs that can have great and measurable social impact. Discussion at the event will address opportunities and barriers to impact investing and ways to strengthen the industry.

Rockefeller Foundation will also use the forum to launch the ‘Challenge Grant’, which will provide funds to impact investing ecosystem builders in India. Dasra will be administering the search and evaluation process for this. The total grant will be distributed between five to eight organizations, with each receiving between $50,000 and $75,000.

For more information
http://www.dasra.org/ipf