Stanford Social Innovation Review

Critics of microfinance institutions (MFIs) ask them to choose between helping the poor or making money for investors, but this is a false choice. MFIs can have their impact and profit, too, says the author, the CEO of the Grameen Foundation. He sketches a new vision of microfinance as a platform, not a product; one that relies on high volumes, not high margins, and that uses limits on private benefit, holistic performance standards, and third-party certification to help MFIs meet both their bottom lines.

How to get more racial minorities into corner offices.

Conservative Protestants are poorer partly because of their religion.

Nobel Peace Prize winner Mohammad Yunus aims for a more just society for all.

Why grassroots design will determine the winners in developing markets.
by Joshua Weissburg

Dancing Deer Bakery helps most when it keeps its eye on the bottom line.

(left): CEO Patricia Karter (right) and employees ice cookies. The company hires heavily from its surrounding low-income neighborhood of Roxbury.

Management wisdom says that nonprofits must be large and in charge to do the most good. But some of the world’s most successful organizations instead stay small, sharing their load with like-minded, long-term partners. The success of these networked nonprofits suggests that organizations should focus less on growing themselves and more on cultivating their networks.

Social enterprises combine the best of the nonprofit and for-profit worlds, but that very innovation has made it difficult for them to raise money. Philanthropists are reluctant to give grants to profit-making organizations, and commercial investors are wary of investing in organizations that are driven by a social mission. The authors explore the social enterprise capital market and offer short- and long-term solutions to this funding gap.

Foundation grantmaking can become more responsive, intuitive, and effective.

Who are social entrepreneurs and why does what they do matter?

The former president shares how ordinary citizens are helping to solve our big problems.

How the next president of the United States can spur social entrepreneurship.

Matching grants work – but not for everyone.

How Changemakers’ “collaborative competitions” harness the wisdom of crowds.

Few microfinance institutions articulate what, exactly, their ultimate goals are and how to achieve them. If the goal of microfinance is to alleviate poverty, the authors say, then MFIs should focus on helping their clients build successful enterprises, rather than on making more and bigger loans.