| Date |
Author |
Category |
Title |
| Summer 2008 |
|
Social Innovations • Microfinance • Socially Responsible Investing • Philanthropy • Foundations • Nonprofits • Social Return on Investment • Business • Social Enterprises • Global Issues • Poverty |
Reimagining Microfinance [Free!]
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.
|
| Summer 2008 |
|
Social Innovations • Microfinance • Socially Responsible Investing • Business • Social Enterprises • Global Issues • Poverty |
Microloan Sharks
Commercial microfinance institutions (MFIs) must calculate two bottom lines: alleviating poverty for clients and also generating profits for investors. To achieve the latter goal, some MFIs charge their impoverished clients exorbitant interest rates. The recent Banco Compartamos IPO in Mexico raises a red flag, demonstrating how easily well-intentioned MFIs and their investors can shift from microlending to microloan-sharking.
|
| Fall 2008 |
|
Business • Socially Responsible Business • Global Issues • Human Rights |
Beyond CSR
How companies can respect human rights.
|
| Fall 2008 |
|
Government • Social Policy • Business • Socially Responsible Business • Global Issues • Human Rights |
Dropping the Ball
Why the Soccer Ball Project—one of the world's first multistakeholder efforts to stop abuses of labor rights—is failing to protect workers in Pakistan.
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