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How Large NGOs Are Using Data to Transform Themselves

Harvard Business Review

Not many would associate innovation with large, service-oriented nonprofits with decades of history. Army staffers now develop individual strategies to overcome these barriers, connecting families to community services to achieve self-sufficiency. A critical part was adapting a proven model in a related field: microfinance.

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Funders Can Give More than Money

Harvard Business Review

When presented with a surprising idea, smart organizations will bravely listen, because what comes next might just be game-changing innovation. 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.

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Scaling Up Without Losing Your Edge

Harvard Business Review

Without economies of scale, they argued, developing societies would never develop the efficiencies needed to modernize. To address the needs of youth in developing countries, BRAC launched a girls' empowerment program, Empowerment and Livelihood for Adolescents (ELA), in 2008. So BRAC got into food processing.

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It Takes a Village to Raise an Entrepreneur

Harvard Business Review

Social entrepreneurship has evolved a great deal since the late 1980s, when pioneers like City Year 's Alan Khazei and Teach for America 's Wendy Kopp took great risks to prove that innovative organizations could produce transformative social change. Take, for example, the issue of economic development.

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Using Games to Get a Handle on Bank Risk

Harvard Business Review

Yet unlike in finance, where distributing risk across institutions is the goal, in drug development the focus is on isolating risk. Although new drugs are developed for those with a particular disease, they are tested in a healthy population before they are distributed and assessed in a vulnerable one.

Banking 10
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Entrepreneurship Needs to Be a Bigger Part of U.S. Foreign Aid

Harvard Business Review

” In less mature economies and fragile regions of the world, entrepreneurs are just as, if not more, critical to livelihoods and development. Among the initial findings : more effective programs emphasize communication skills, networking, and organizational structure over developing finance and accounting skills.

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How to Make Room in Your Work Life for the Rest of Your Self

Harvard Business Review

“My definition of a yoga teacher is just someone who helps people to develop a full spectrum practice in their life. Embracing your multiple identities can improve your ability to take others’ perspectives and engage in creative and innovative behavior. ” Connections between work and home can also be influential.

How To 10