There are so many wonderful groups doing high impact work to help solve the world’s most pressing problems. Below is just a short list of a few we find especially inspiring.
Gray Ghost Ventures is a pioneer of the global impact investing movement and continues to be innovative in furthering its expansion. As one of the earliest private investors in microfinance, GGV seeks to eliminate poverty and strengthen communities through catalytic, early-stage investments in the developing world by focusing on enabling technology, financial services, and other products and services concentrated on enhancing the quality of life for large, underserved populations in emerging markets.
Visit WebsiteThe Omidyar Group represents the philanthropic, personal and professional interests of Pierre and Pam Omidyar. We are guided and inspired by a fundamental belief that people are inherently capable of making a difference and are drawn to help themselves and others when they are empowered with the knowledge and tools to do so.
Visit WebsiteThe Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC), the U.S. Government’s development finance institution, mobilizes private capital to help solve critical development challenges and in doing so, advances U.S. foreign policy. Because OPIC works with the U.S. private sector, it helps U.S. businesses gain footholds in emerging markets, catalyzing revenues, jobs and growth opportunities both at home and abroad. OPIC achieves its mission by providing investors with financing, political risk insurance, and support for private equity funds.
Visit WebsiteWe unite entrepreneurs with the potential to address major problems at scale. Problems like poverty, lack of education, and access to clean water. We then swarm them with hand-picked mentors, funders, and a global network to help grow their impact. Our goal? For each venture to impact 1,000,000 people.
Visit WebsiteVillage Capital finds, trains, and invests in entrepreneurs solving real-world problems. We build communities around entrepreneurs and their ventures to improve opportunities for growth and success.
Visit WebsiteWe assist those in urgent need anywhere, anytime, no matter what the conditions, providing lifesaving health care and health care-related emergency services—often within hours.
As conditions ease, we work with local leaders to rebuild stronger. In non-emergency settings, our focus is development. Through our training programs, we pass essential skills into local hands, preparing those in disaster-prone areas to better withstand adversity. Embedding these skills into the community lies at the heart of what we do: build self-reliance. It gives people hit by tragedy a sense of ownership over their own recovery and the ability to shape their own future as they rebuild. And wherever it occurs, it is an investment that benefits us all because it prepares local residents to be their own best First Responders should disaster strike.
Visit WebsiteThe Sager Family Traveling Foundation & Roadshow began in 2000 when Bobby Sager, his wife Elaine, daughter Tess and son Shane traveled in the developing world for over a year to engage in “hands-on, eyeball-to-eyeball philanthropy.” Working together as a family, the Sagers apply their entrepreneurial skills and Rolodex to make an impact in areas of conflict and crisis, including Rwanda, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Syria, Zimbabwe and Palestine. They travel as a family several times a year to do the hands-on work of their foundation.
Visit WebsiteCOMPASS’s founders are driven by direct and personal experience of treatment-resistant depression, of the inconsistency of health system responses to mental health issues, and of the need for better care options. They and the company are committed to developing patient pathways and therapies that improve mental health care, and then making these available and accessible to patients who will benefit from them. COMPASS will do this in collaboration and partnership with others.
Our work is based on scientific rigour, and we will adhere to the highest standards of intellectual and scientific integrity in all that we do. We expect the same approach from those with whom we work.
Visit WebsiteWith the support of an unrivaled network of seasoned business leaders, Endeavor works to catalyze long-term economic growth by selecting, mentoring, and accelerating the best high-impact entrepreneurs worldwide.
Endeavor supports high-impact entrepreneurs so that they can build thriving companies that employ thousands of people, generate billions in wages, and inspire countless others as role models. Together, these entrepreneurs hold the key to sustained economic growth in every part of the world.
Visit WebsiteImpactAssets allows me access to a growing community, and a rich platform of impact investments in ventures and funds, as well as the custom ability to do the specific deals that I’m passionate about.
We create game changing financial products that open up the world of impact investing. New and experienced investors alike can access entrepreneurs, fund managers and nonprofits best positioned to deliver on a wide range of opportunities with financial, social and environmental impact.
Visit WebsiteMicroCredit Enterprises is a non-profit organization based in Sacramento, California, that leverages private capital to promote micro-enterprises throughout the developing world by issuing loans and guarantees to creditworthy microfinance institutions (MFIs). Founded in 2005, MicroCredit Enterprises’ loan portfolio includes 17 MFIs in 12 countries, impacting 235,000 poor people. The balance of total loans issued is USD 9.3 million and MicroCredit Enterprises’ current loan default rate is 0.00%. The organization has a low operating expense, with approximately 3% of its loan portfolio or USD 300,000 allocated to budgeted expenditures. The low operating expense is possible since MicroCredit Enterprises’ senior management team, with the exception of the Senior Vice President for Portfolio Management, serve the organization on a pro bono basis.
Visit WebsiteFounded in 2003, MicroVest is an asset management firm that offers investors a unique global investment opportunity. We seek to invest capital in under-banked markets and provide access to financial services for rising middle-class communities around the world. We believe our detailed due diligence process and focus on aligning values can result in meaningful financial returns. In other words, we feel that we are able to produce risk-adjusted financial returns for our investors not despite the social lens of our investment process, but because of it. We believe that financial institutions that invest in the real economy and treat their clients with respect will outperform.
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