Filed under Good & Gasp

Good & Gasp #4 – Scaling Social Enterprises, iPhone Guilt, Ethical Rankings, Philanthropy Limits

Good & Gasp #4

Scaling Social Enterprises, iPhone Guilt, Ethical Rankings, Philanthropy Time Limits

Themes that caught my attention, interest or made my eyes roll while roaming the web world of doing good:

  • Scaling Social Enterprises – how can social enterprises scale post seed-investment stage?
  • iPhone Guilt – is Apple or its loyal consumers (you) to be blamed for the Foxconn debacle?
  • Philanthropy Limits – should foundations consider spending their money quicker and winding down (dying) earlier?
  • Ethical Rankings – if weapons companies make the list of most ethical firms, what exactly do we mean by “ethical”?

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Good & Gasp #3 – Social Enterprise in Chinese, EcoMind, Common Wealth, Muppetgate, Human Engineering

Good & Gasp #3

Social Enterprise in Chinese, EcoMind, Common Wealth, Muppetgate, Human Engineering

Themes that caught my attention, interest or made my eyes roll while roaming the web world of doing good:

  • Social Enterprise in Chinese – 3 definitions of “social enterprise” in the same (huge) country?
  • EcoMind & Mental Myths – do the “end of growth” pessimists have it all wrong?
  • Common Resource Use Charges – should companies pay for polluting (and should we get some of the proceeds of such “common wealth” charges)?
  • Goldman Sachs’ Muppetgate – why do GS’ “muppet” clients keep coming back for more?
  • Human vs. Climate Engineering – should we consider genetically “making” humans more environmentally friendly?

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Good & Gasp #2 – Social Impact Bonds, Enviro-investing, Prediction Markets

Good & Gasp #2

Social Impact Bonds, Enviro-investing, Microfinance Failures

Themes that caught my attention, interest or made my eyes roll while roaming the web world of doing good:

  • Social Impact Bonds – what’s the next step in this innovative financial instrument for social enterprises?
  • Environmental Impact Investing – how is environmental entrepreneurship different from “social” for the sake of impact investing?
  • Microfinance Failures – what can we learn from ex-SKS Microfinance’s CEO Vikram Akula’s admission of failure?
  • Social Value vs. Social Change – is it better to talk of social “change” or “value” and what is the important difference?
  • Sustainability by 2050 – 81% of companies apparently claim they already incorporated sustainability in their organizations… are we screwed, then?
  • Prediction Markets for Randomized Control Trials – how can we use prediction markets to help make better decisions on randomized control trials?

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Good & Gasp #1 – Encore-Stagers, Toil-o-preneurs, Impact Investing Bubbles

Good & Gasp #1

Encore-Stagers, Toil-o-preneurs, Impact Investing Bubbles

Themes that caught my attention, interest or made my eyes roll while roaming the web world of doing good:

  • Encore Fellowships – how to use the potential of OLDER people, instead of YOUNGER people
  • Toil-o-preneurs – innovations in solving worldwide sanitation problems
  • Civic responsibility – how to get Americans to find public jobs “cool” again (if ever)
  • Impact Investing troubles and bubbles – are we on an impact investing bubble since nobody seems able to find all those financially juicy deals that we’ve been promised?
  • Good (Business) Generation Gaps – discussion on the shift in generations towards doing more social good (btw, this was a “gasp” for me)

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Announcement – Introducing Good & Gasp

Dear Good Generation,

We all are busy nowadays clicking on countless tweets, Facebook posts and blog news all over the web, and I would be the first to admit it’s a bit tiring as I’d love to find more summaries of interesting stories like the ones you get on Acumen Fund’s “Seen and Heard” and Echoing Green’s “The Buzz”.

In the spirit of “replicaneurship” (this past Weekly Ponder #5‘s topic), I would like to start something similar. That is, a weekly or periodic list of articles and discussions around the online ether that I found cool, interesting, or where I even left comments myself (“Good”) or that I found, rather uncool, superficial, superfluous, incomplete, or that made me simply angry (“Gasp”). Either way, I figure it’s a win-win for all. Readers (you) get another summary of “must-reads” or “must avoids”, authors get more traffic (for better or worse) and I might get the satisfaction of more people reading my raves and rants outside of this blog.

Oh, that reminds me. If YOU feel like being charitable, please forward me some good or terrible stuff on our favorite “do-good” and “careers” topics that you see on the net. I might check it out and include it on “Good & Gasp”.

For now, all the best roaming and reading for the next interesting story!

Sincerely,

Thien

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