Social Impact
Making Impact Investing Work for System Resilience—and Investor Profits
To confront interconnected environmental and social crises, impact investors will need to factor resilience-building into their expected returns, especially in the most vulnerable parts of the world.
Does New York City Need Lincoln Center?
Performing arts organizations are contending with aging audiences and shrinking budgets, and looking for new ways to reach audiences. Yale Insights spoke with Jed Bernstein ’79, formerly a theatrical producer, as he prepared to begin his new job as president of Lincoln Center, the country’s biggest stage for classical music, opera, and dance and a pillar of New York City’s economy.
Can Insurance Help the Poor Manage Risk?
Rainfall insurance can help a farmer survive a drought year and ultimately increase prosperity in rural areas. So why aren’t more using it? Many people in developing countries rely on informal insurance, such as a family network, rather than formal insurance. Yale SOM professor Mushfiq Mobarak’s research has tested the effects of formal insurance for farmers in India and elucidated how the two systems interact.
What’s Next For Social Enterprise?
Social enterprises, ventures that seek to address significant societal problems while also achieving financial sustainability, have become a bigger part of the business world. Chuck Slaughter ’90, founder of Living Goods, discusses what it will take for the field to produce a breakout star.
What Do Social Entrepreneurs Do?
Four Yale SOM graduates who have founded and run organizations—both for-profit and nonprofit—that aim to have large-scale social impact talked about their experiences in the fast-developing field of social enterprise.
Can Teaching Tea Workers In India To Read Have a Larger Impact?
Mercy Corps’ literacy program in Assam, India, works because it is local—designed and taught by staff with an understanding of the culture there. As a global organization, Mercy Corps needs to balance investment in a deep understanding of local issues with the imperative to make a difference in as many lives as possible.
How Can Social Entrepreneurs Respond to the Growing Freshwater Shortage?
Anupam Bhargava, CEO of Clearwater Systems, discusses the role of cleantech in ensuring a sustainable water supply.
Classroom Insights: Hybrid Models for Social Good
In a talk with Master of Advanced Management students at Yale SOM, Mercy Corps CEO Neal Keny-Guyer ’82 discusses the importance of finding innovative partnerships between the nonprofit and for-profit sectors.
Do international development organizations need to be in the innovation business?
Neal Keny-Guyer '82, CEO of Mercy Corps, talks about his organization's formula for innovation: local leadership, rigorous metrics, and a willingness to adapt and change in mid-project.
Can impact investing have an impact?
Impact investing, a growing niche in finance, seeks to marry strong financial returns with positive social impacts. That can mean investing in companies whose products improve the environment, or it can mean helping a startup find ways to positively contribute to the neighborhood where it’s based. Nancy Pfund ’82, founder and managing partner of DBL Investors, talks about the growth of the sector.
Can a town reinvent itself before its economic engine disappears?
Tabubil is a town of about 30,000 people, deep in the mountains of Papua New Guinea. It was built by the operators of the Ok Tedi mine, an open-pit gold and copper mine. But now, with the end of the mine’s life in sight, the town faces a stark challenge: completely remake itself or disappear. John Wylie, former head of the Tabubil Futures Initiative, talks about what it takes to imagine a new economy and a new way of life for the isolated community.
