article thumbnail

Women as Microfinance Leaders, Not Just Clients

Harvard Business Review

We're a network of microfinance organizations; we exist to share practices and develop the leadership skills required by a sector that has grown up fast. And as you might be aware, microfinance is a phenomenon that, while it did not set out to be "for women," has mainly turned out to be.

article thumbnail

It Takes a Village to Raise an Entrepreneur

Harvard Business Review

We've extensively analyzed the applications to the Echoing Green fellowship between 2006 and 2011, and built a rich dataset that allows us to rigorously study trends in the field of social enterprise. In 2010 and 2011, almost 50% of the applicants to Echoing Green relied on hybrid models, versus 37% in 2006.

article thumbnail

Facebook Presence Is an Important Clue to a Social Venture's Future

Harvard Business Review

Here, we gleaned some additional insights from a separate analysis of 281 social ventures that applied to participate in the 2010 or 2011 Summer Institutes run by the Unreasonable Institute , the Colorado-based social-enterprise accelerator. So what does it take to create these larger online networks?