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If You're Out to Change the World, How Do You Know When to Move On?

Harvard Business Review

The magnitude of that goal can make the right time to exit seem like "never." Every international NGO (INGO) and aid agency involved in water supply has a mission statement along the lines of "we envision a world where no one dies of a water-related disease." That is particularly true in the water sector.

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It's Not All About Growth for Social Enterprises

Harvard Business Review

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. Yet, if scaling impact is the goal, these skills are essential.

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The Big Trends Changing Community Development

Harvard Business Review

It’s a valid question, but disappointingly, almost no NGO can point to evidence of impact. There are many efforts underway to define better outcome metrics and track them over time. By now, three generations and at least three million children have passed through such programs. Have they been effective? But all this has been changing.

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The Changing Role of Global Leaders

Harvard Business Review

The company would double the size of its business, he said, by channeling its efforts toward achieving eight ambitious goals by 2020 — among them, doubling the proportion of Unilever's portfolio that meets the highest nutritional standards, and halving the water associated with the consumer use of its products.

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The Future of Cities Depends on Innovative Financing

Harvard Business Review

However, social impact and pay-for-success securities could unlock substantial foundation, philanthropic, and NGO assets to buffer the risk for return-seeking capital. As with other pay-for-success programs, the ability to attract pure return-seeking capital may be limited for social impact bonds. Corporations might even get involved.