The Trouble With Top-Down
The limits of technocratic, one-size-fits-all approaches to economic development have become all too evident.
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Economic Development Social innovations that improve the living standards of the poor
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Safe at Home
Thanks to ROC USA, residents of mobile home parks can gain a real stake in the places where they live.
Broken Rules, Better Loans?
Loan officers’ discretion plays a large role in determining the success of a micro-lending organization.
Tackling Financial Exclusion
How to provide sustainable banking solutions for low-income consumers in the United States and abroad.
The Dirt on Seed-Funding Social Change
As philanthropists, I think our deepest duty is to gamble on people, through untried solutions that just might overturn ancient societal inequities.
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The Problem With Fair Trade Coffee
Fair Trade-certified coffee is growing in sales, but strict certification requirements are resulting in uneven economic advantages for coffee growers and lower quality coffee for consumers.
Innovative Solutions for the Housing Crisis
Six pathways to making housing more affordable and available from the Ivory Prize for Housing Affordability.
The Profit in Nonprofit
Why Kiva chose to be a 501(c)(3), what this tax status buys the organization, and how being a nonprofit poses challenges.
Beyond the Poverty Line
A new approach to measuring poverty is needed, one that accounts for multiple factors such as housing, and regional economic differences.
Beyond ‘X Number Served’
To cure the social sector’s metric monomania, we must get comfortable with complexity.