Next month MyC4, the community lending site led by my Danish friend Mads Kjaer will pass the first 1,000 loans funded in Uganda, Kenya and Ivory Coast with approximately one million euros in risk capital from +3,000 investors from 50 countries. The average ROI is 11.6% and their first four provider’s are able to […]

Both the Times of London and the Financial Times are carrying stories about Mark Campanale’s Social Stock Exchange and the support it’s getting from both the Rockefeller Foundation and the UK government. The Times highlighted government support and the FT the funding event. I will be having lunch with Mark this week after the Skoll […]

happiness as alternative to gdp Originally uploaded by tintin5021

People are exploring happiness as an alternative to the GDP.Then there is Bhutan in the WSJ. And the Economist says at least look at GDP per capita. Impact, in its various forms, is making it onto the balance sheet. Risk return and […]

As Bhutan enters these uncharted political and economic waters, its leaders want to prove that they can achieve economic growth while maintaining good governance, protecting the environment and preserving an ancient culture. To do that, they’ve decided to start calculating GNH. It means coming up with an actual happiness index that can be tracked over […]

Savings as a group activity with a goal, through an application called Smartypig. Peer to peer finance continues to evolve (Bank bar camp event next Saturday, March 29th, in Berkeley.

What is it? SmartyPig is interest-bearing FDIC insured savings account with a specific goal can be shared with friends and family. Kind of like a 12 […]

Google has launched Google For Non-Profits, a portal that provides access to select Google applications for non-profit organizations, including Gmail, Checkout, Docs, Calendar, and Analytics.

ommercial users of Google Checkout have to pay fees, but non-profits can use the online payment service without monthly, setup, or gateway fees until 2009.

The writer of Girl Meets Business has taken a typically pragmaticlook at how philanthropy can help your career. I flagged it because she referenced a blog post I did on the neural payoff we get from giving.

Compumentor, our good friends and partner in Socap08, has started their mashup challenge. Their projects look really interesting, though they are not all there yet.

Good article by Joshua Weissburg in latest Stanford Social Innovation Review about the market opportunity to provide electricity to poor people off the grid. It leans on partnering with big companies and does not talk about creating investable startups, which will be one of the focuses of our event in October in SF. “How do you […]

That’s the headline from a Calvert/Microplace sponsored webinar set for next week. Here is the rest of the blurb: “Invest Wisely. End Poverty.” This is the goal of eBay’s new online microfinance investment marketplace, MicroPlace. While online microlending has been growing more popular with peer-to-peer offerings such as the nonprofit Kiva.org, MicroPlace is charting a whole […]