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Guest Post: An Entrepreneur's Thoughts on Market Incentives & Foreign Aid

Mills Scofield

One of his main tasks was to structure a hedging derivative that negated foreign exchange risks so that Microfinance institutions could take safer loans from the developed world. I think that microfinance is one of those rare game changing social initiatives that manages to use market forces to drive social change.

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Making Microfinance More Effective

Harvard Business Review

The Grameen model of microfinance gained a great deal of attention in the international development field after early data showed that it was associated with high repayment and low default. Expanded access to microloans did lead some entrepreneurs to increase business investments , but rarely to increased profits.

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What Makes Social Entrepreneurs Different

Harvard Business Review

When social entrepreneurs say that they want to "work themselves out of a job" they are not making a glib statement to sound cool. Commercial entrepreneurs are different. That is why social entrepreneurs were among the most enthusiastic popularizers of concepts like C.K. They're out to standardize a business model.

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It Takes a Village to Raise an Entrepreneur

Harvard Business Review

For the last two years, we have studied this evolution with our partners at Echoing Green , a fellowship-granting organization that provides seed funding to emerging social entrepreneurs. However, our research reveals that hybrid entrepreneurs are fighting an uphill battle to launch and scale their ventures.

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Can Technology End Poverty?

Harvard Business Review

Shameran Abed, who runs BRAC's microfinance program, explains what happened: "In the first couple months, a lot of our borrowers would send the money through their mobile phones and then physically show up at the branch to check with the accountant that the money had turned up.". Immerse yourself in the details.

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Can Technology End Poverty?

Harvard Business Review

Shameran Abed, who runs BRAC's microfinance program, explains what happened: "In the first couple months, a lot of our borrowers would send the money through their mobile phones and then physically show up at the branch to check with the accountant that the money had turned up.". Immerse yourself in the details.