Harvard Business Review

MAY 24, 2012

For the last two years, we have studied this evolution with our partners at Echoing Green , a fellowship-granting organization that provides seed funding to emerging social entrepreneurs. These hybrids pursue a social mission while engaging in commercial activities that generate revenues that help them sustain their operations.

Entrepreneur 15

Entrepreneur Microfinance Market Segmentation Incubator 15

Harvard Business Review

JANUARY 11, 2013

Six years ago, David and Donna Allman approached Opportunity with an idea that fell outside our traditional microfinance model: to build a Community Economic Development (CED) program in Nicaragua. Together, we've constructed school libraries, repaired churches, built roads, and, crucially, ensured clean water through new aqueduct systems.

Microfinance 8

Microfinance Rogers Tourism Engineering 8

Harvard Business Review

JANUARY 21, 2013

If you ask venture capitalists in Silicon Valley how they measure the success of business entrepreneurs, they would no doubt list off metrics having to do with fast growth: funding raised, people hired, customers acquired, revenue produced. Successful examples of this approach are still rare; most people point to microfinance.

Venture Capitalist 9

Venture Capitalist Mentor Microfinance NGO 9

Harvard Business Review

MARCH 17, 2014

This is a nascent sector where entrepreneurs and investors are still figuring out business models, developing new financial products, and proving exit strategies and exit multiples, and only a handful of players are using agreed-upon metrics for assessing social impact. sanitation, housing, mobile banking).

Development 9

Development Microfinance Biotechnology Exit Strategy 9