Investing for impact

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Jacqueline Novogratz, founder and CEO of Acumen, and Myrna Atalla, executive director of Alfanar, the Middle East's first venture philanthropy organisation, join host Maysa Jalbout in The Impact Room to discuss what businesses, philanthropists, and impact investors can do to support social enterprises.

A new generation of entrepreneurs are setting up mission-driven businesses to solve social problems in a sustainable way. These so-called social enterprises come in all shapes and sizes and span a variety of sectors and markets. Some focus on the provision of goods, like handicrafts or food, while others offer services such as online translation, access to off-grid energy or microfinance. But for all the success stories, many social businesses are still struggling to either scale effectively and compete in a for-profit marketplace, or wean themselves off a dependency on grant funding. 

In this episode of The Impact Room, we look at how the social enterprise ecosystem has grown over the past two decades, examine the ingredients for success, and hear how impact investment is changing the game.

Novogratz, whose nonprofit Acumen has pioneered the investment of patient capital into social business, shares her thoughts about how innovative partnerships can help scale and sustain impact-driven start-ups.

The author of New York Times best seller The Blue Sweater: Bridging the Gap between Rich and Poor, Novogratz, speaks passionately about some of Acumen's investees, talks about her hopes for achieving moonshot goals, such as universal electricity access, and gives advice to philanthropists about how they get involved.

Atalla, meanwhile, explains how philanthropy can support mission-driven businesses and reflects on the emergence of a new generation of entrepreneurs focussed on impact and climate-related issues. She also shares details of Alfanar’s two new initiatives, a US$50m regional impact investment fund, and a $5m pooled fund to provide operating grants and zero interest loans to  organisations driving women's economic empowerment in the MENA region.

Organisations referenced in this episode include:

• Future Eve
• FabricAid 
• Easy Solar 
• Promethean Power Systems 
• Uncommon Cacao 
• d.light 
• Kheyti 

The books recommended by our guests were: 

• “The Awakened Brain” by Lisa Miller 
• “Home in the world” by Amartya Sen
• “Poetry unbound: 50 poems to open your world” by Pádraig Ó Tuama 
• Introduction to Social Entrepreneurship by Teresa Chahine

The Impact Room is brought to you by Philanthropy Age and Maysa Jalbout. Find us on social media @PhilanthropyAge