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Opinions
Learning from the farmer’s market
The global financial crisis has shaken our faith in markets. Wall Street, the City of London and other financial centres asked governments for complete freedom in the capital markets. They claimed it would create value …
Investors’ perspectives – Bringing confidence to social investments
Stock markets worldwide continue to be in turmoil, so it is premature to start talking about any lessons learned during the financial crisis of the past year. Certainly, a more active regulatory presence might have …
Payout – once again
Whenever there is an economic downturn, or whenever a major problem catches the fancy of a critical mass of people, a cry goes up that the foundation world must do something to address the issue. …
Three in the bed?
The phenomenon of ‘new philanthropy’ has seen a number of shifts in the attitudes of wealthy donors, notably the desire to see tangible impact and to become actively engaged by offering skills and expertise in …
The value of inconvenience
We know that convenience is a major factor in the use of financial services, don’t we? At least that’s the assumption of many funders and implementers who are working to make financial services more convenient …
The sky isn’t falling …
Everyone loves to moan about a crisis, in this case an economic one. The words meltdown and tsunami are frequently used to describe the current situation. We are prone to take the most dire situation …
Investors’ perspectives: New opportunities for social investing
The precipitous fall in markets worldwide and fears of a global recession have created the most challenging economic situation in a generation. But as investors look closely at their portfolios, social investments can fill a …
More effort needed on the supply side
In a recent article for the Guardian,[1] I suggested that if observers were to ‘peer beyond the wreckage of western financial systems’, they could ‘discern the outlines of the future’. I also suggested that the …
Trustee’s column: Why is MCI so hard for some foundations?
Sevdalina Rukanova’s article in the September issue of Alliance describes some of the problems foundations encounter in approaching mission connected investing – MCI. The idea of an investment that ‘targets a market rate of return …
Investors’ perspectives: Microfinance going mainstream?
A growing supply of capital is being directed towards social investing as investors become more aware that they can have a direct impact on pressing social and environmental issues by determining the way their money …