Social impact, entrepreneurship, and innovation — if it’s interesting news, you’ll find it here. These stories may not be the ones atop your news feed, but chances are they’re the ones you’ll actually want to read. Whether it’s opinions on creating positive social change – or the simply the valuable lessons learned along the way, here’s a round up of the past month’s most interesting articles.

Finding the Right Impact Investor for Your Social Enterprise

Investors spend a long time choosing where to put their money. But do entrepreneurs put enough effort into vetting potential funders – the people and organisations who may play a major role in the shape and direction of the company? Rupert Scofield, president and CEO of FINCA International, shares three tips for investment-ready entrepreneurs.

Social Enterprise Is More Important Now than Ever, Says Deloitte Research

Deloitte’s new Leading the social enterprise: Reinvent with a human focus report has found that despite business leaders believing socially responsible enterprises are more important now than ever, only 19% of business leaders are ready to embrace it.

Size of the Global Impact Investing Market Revealed

The global impact investing market is now worth $502 billion, according to new research that advocates say highlights the need for future growth across the responsible investing landscape.

5 Steps to Develop a Career of Impact and a Life of Fulfilment

Working with professionals who want to create social impact, at Amani Institute we have identified 5 key elements to help people find their place in the purpose economy. 440 Fellows from 60 countries globally have already joined our award-winning Social Innovation Management program and confirmed the importance of these 5 interconnected dimensions.

Cool but Confused: Social Entrepreneurs Find It Harder to Explain Their Work

As businesses with a mission to do good become increasingly trendy, social entrepreneurs said they were finding it harder than ever to tackle one of their major problems - explaining what they do.

The Surprising Impact of Socially Responsible Investing

Now more than ever, we have the chance to make conscious decisions about how we spend our money and which companies we choose to invest in. Here’s everything you need to know to ensure your money creates a positive social, environmental and humanitarian impact whenever you invest, spend or donate.

The Importance of Ownership in Understanding Social Enterprise

When thinking about social enterprises the first questions to ask are who owns it and what is the ownership structure, writes Alan Kay.

From Purpose to Personal, Social Entrepreneurs Struggle to Strike a Balance

Balancing personal needs, alongside running a healthy organisation that delivers social impact, is a challenge for many social entrepreneurs.

'Do Good, Make Money': Impact Investing Goes Mainstream

Tom Culver and Emily Taylor are helping younger investors invest according to their values and the pair have raised more than $100,000 in a few short days to grow their startup Goodments.

Why the New Breed of Entrepreneurs Looks Beyond Making a Profit

 The number of startups founded to solve social and environmental issues has been growing steadily. A 2016 report by Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) shows that globally, about a third of all startups now aims for social good.

Media Exposure for Your Social Enterprise: 5 PR Tips

Do you have some news that you want to share with the world but have a small or non-existent budget for public relations? Well, look no further. Here are 5 tips for getting exposure.

Democratising Impact Investing

At the moment impact investing can feel like an exclusive activity, but there is lots to gain from democratising it, writes Daniel Madhavan, the CEO of Impact Investment Group.

There Are Seven Problems with Measuring Social Impact. Here's How to Solve Them

Rodolphe Durand of HEC Paris introduces a first of its kind assessment tool that cuts through potential greenwash to measure companies’ contribution to the SDGs.

Seven Ways to Encourage Gen Z Professionals to Pursue Social Entrepreneurship

To move a business forward and stay in-line with changing times, society needs to encourage more young people to pursue social entrepreneurship. So, how can organisations work to bolster younger professionals' interest in social entrepreneurship? We asked seven members of Forbes Nonprofit Council to outline concrete ways you can champion social entrepreneurship for all ages, especially younger ones.

Government Urged to Act on Impact Investment

Peak impact investing groups are warning Australia will fall behind globally if the federal government doesn’t pick up the pace on scaling the nation’s impact investment market.

5 Steps to Sustainable Community Building

Here are the 5 steps Small Shift (a social enterprise that trains and inspires local residents to tend to small public spaces) takes to support and foster positive connections among individuals, groups, organisations, neighbourhoods, and communities.

It’s Time to Solve It, Australia!

Got a complex problem? Get the training, tools and potentially even the funding you need to tackle it, writes Jessica Roth, director of Social Impact Hub.

From Purpose to Personal, Social Entrepreneurs Struggle to Strike a Balance

From tackling pollution to improving access to healthcare, social entrepreneurs try to use businesses to help solve some of the world’s greatest problems but many agree the magnitude of doing so with limited means can take a personal toll.

Michael Traill Getting Social with Investing

Businesses looking to restore their tarnished reputations could be a spur to greater investment in "social impact" projects that deliver a financial return within an ethical framework, according to the Morrison's government's new handpicked adviser.

Social Impact Gurus to Charge the Growth of Impact Market

Australia’s impact investing market is ready to be taken to the next level, according to the newly appointed leaders of the expert panel, who will take charge of developing the nation’s fledgling social impact market.

Larry Fink, Tucker Carlson, David Brooks and the Call for a Capitalist Reformation

Larry Fink challenges. Tucker Carlson rants. David Brooks moralises. Others wonder Can American Capitalism Survive? They all correctly diagnose the problem—a broken economic system that is not meeting the needs of the vast majority of people and that has embedded incentives that make it designed to fail in the more perilous times ahead—but they all fail to see clearly how long we’ve had this problem, what is its root cause, and what is required for its solution.

How a Gates Foundation-backed Fund Is Revolutionising Global Health Impact Investing

Dr. Curt LaBelle has been investing in healthcare companies for over 18 years, and now serves as the Managing Partner of the Global Health Investment Fund (GHIF).  GHIF is a social impact investment fund, which manages manages ~$108M and was initially structured and backed by the Gates Foundation and JP Morgan in 2012. As Bill Gates detailed in a talk announcing the fund with Jamie Dimon, GHIF is one of the pioneers of global health investing, focused on a ‘double bottom line’ of health outcomes and financial returns. The fund targets $5-15M investments in innovative global health companies, and alongside the Gates Foundation, is backed by the IFC, GSK, Pfizer, Grand Challenges Canada, KfW and Merck, among others.  GHIF’s work in product development is used by the World Bank as a case study as to how to effectively expand access to quality and affordable health care.

NFPs Struggling to Measure Their Impact

Charities need greater funding support to measure outcomes with many not for profits lacking the resources to do so effectively, new research has found.

With Big Business Touting Ethics, How Do Small Social Brands Survive?

Whether it is U.S. denim brand Levi’s campaigning against gun violence or British supermarket Iceland drawing attention to the environmental impact of palm oil production, big businesses want to show they care about people and the planet, not just profits. But this growing trend has made it harder for social enterprises – which are organisations set up specifically to tackle social and environmental problems through commercial means – to stand out.

TED Just Raised $280 Million for 8 World-changing Projects

For the second year, TED is providing significant funding and institutional support to projects tackling some of the world’s most entrenched problems–from climate change to girls’ education to public health crises.

Not Just a Tick in the Box, Social Impact Needs to Be a Company-wide Initiative

While more corporates and businesses in Asia are now implementing a social impact strategy, many are still typically incongruent with the company’s profitability and growth objectives and are often rendered obsolete. Effective social impact strategies need to be ingrained in the very fabric of a company’s corporate DNA, and not just a tick in the box.

Value, Growth, Impact: How the Lean Startup Approach Can Transform Social Enterprise

This new book shows how the scientific and entrepreneurial approach can be applied to social innovation as well. On the occasion of World Book Day 2019, YourStory is delighted to publish the review of this book that aims to transform the world.

Social Impact Bonds: Why Investors Put $5 Million into Reducing Youth Unemployment

Australia’s latest social impact bond sale has collected $5 million to help fund a four-year program that aims to reduce youth unemployment, and provide investors returns as high as 12.4% per annum. SUBSCRIBE