article thumbnail

Servant Leadership Observer ? November 2010

Modern Servant Leader

September 20, 2011 Servant Leadership. Monthly: September 2011. August 2011. April 2011. March 2011. February 2011. January 2011. Servant Leadership Observer – April 2011. Servant Leadership Observer – March 2011. Servant Leadership Observer – February 2011.

article thumbnail

Learning from Microfinance's Woes

Harvard Business Review

A few weeks ago, I attended a lecture about microfinance, and got sucker-punched. Expecting to hear a litany of pros and cons about the business, and an exploration of good and bad models, I was instead greeted with a knockout punch: Microfinance doesn't work, at least not in the way we think it does. That's nice.

Insiders

Sign Up for our Newsletter

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

article thumbnail

Can Technology End Poverty?

Harvard Business Review

If you believe the hype, technology is going to help us end global poverty. At the program's peak, 700 pumps covered 27,000 acres, with the loans constituting 9% of BRAC's total microfinance portfolio. Advances have indeed made a huge difference in the lives of the poor, but there's also a healthy amount of skepticism out there.

article thumbnail

Funders Can Give More than Money

Harvard Business Review

The outlook is only marginally better for endowments , with returns on their invested capital hovering around 5 percent—as they did in 2011. It called for leveraging the profits of the global microfinance institution, and coupling them with private investments from the Allmans and their donor network.

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

Can Technology End Poverty?

Harvard Business Review

If you believe the hype, technology is going to help us end global poverty. At the program's peak, 700 pumps covered 27,000 acres, with the loans constituting 9% of BRAC's total microfinance portfolio. Advances have indeed made a huge difference in the lives of the poor, but there's also a healthy amount of skepticism out there.