Small rural communities are discovering they can generate sustainable income without compromising their traditions and culture. Visitors from around the world discussed ideas at the Rural Social Enterprise Gathering 2025.
Ukraine posts second highest number of climate-focused, blended finance transactions in the world in 2024 – and enters top 10 countries for the first time – as blended finance is identified as a “form of crisis financing” – new Convergence research.
The consensus text criticised for watering down corporate sustainability requirements had been approved by centre parties in committee last week, but MEPs narrowly rejected it in a plenary vote yesterday.
The Rural Social Enterprise Gathering 2025 will take place in Malaysia at the end of October, bringing together hundreds of social entrepreneurs to focus on the distinct challenges faced by communities outside the world’s urban areas. It will be about ‘sharing like family’, predicts one of the key speakers.
Social Enterprise World Forum was founded in Scotland. Now, the country’s government is backing a delegation to head to Taiwan to promote its social enterprise ecosystem to the world.
ACF, School for Social Entrepreneurs and Access Foundation set up taskforce to boost earned income through grants – billed “the missing piece in the finance jigsaw” – by building on success of match trading.
Certifying as a B Corp isn't easy, even for the most experienced ethical businesses. But should the bar be higher? The latest in our Awkward Questions series puts forward some important challenges. Plus, an overlooked solution to messy metrics.
Social Value International adds explicit requirement to ‘be responsive’ – as too few organisations have reached the stage of managing, not just measuring, their impact.
The B Corp idea disrupted entrenched narratives in business. But certification of companies like Nespresso shows that it must now evolve to embrace newer, bolder ideas in business – or risk being adapted to the needs of the “old economy”.
PLUS: EdTech Provider APDS gains US$7m to 'transform the correctional system'; new report calls for US$6trn in impact investing improve urban slums; Wysa raises US$20m to expand AI-powered mental health services, and more.
New study by Global Steering Group for Impact Investment calls for a change in viewpoint from seeing slums and their inhabitants as a problem and instead acknowledging the potential to transform urban liabilities into assets.
When organisations select their preferred impact metrics in isolation from others, it wastes time and makes it difficult to compare results with others. A promising solution: indices.
Social and environmental benefits are entirely interconnected; it's time for the impact community to properly put this into practice. Plus, we explore the recent challenges facing purposeful property enterprise Dot Dot Dot.
As heatwaves sweep Asia and Europe, the reality of the climate crisis is becoming ever more obvious to even the most hardened sceptics. Who has the ideas, skills and motivation to move us to net zero? Social entrepreneurs!
