Publication database

Consumer intelligence refers to the insights and recommendations generated by research teams about target demographics of consumers. In the Growth for Growth network, ThinkPlace used a range of research methods to develop consumer intelligence. Regardless of method, this research focused on spending time with people in their context, learning about how consumers experience the world, not how we see their world externally. 

This toolkit introduced design-led prototyping for companies serving low-income customers. Design-led prototyping is an iterative process, meaning that critique and refinement comes through a series of validation exercises wherein consumers provide feedback to the prototype. Testing does not entail asking users what they think about the prototype as much as it anchors a broader conversation with consumers about how the central idea of the prototype might add value in their lives. 

COMPASS presents a tested, widely accepted methodology to assess and compare impact results. Since impact is inherently multi-dimensional and complex, this methodology is designed to offer investors insight into three critical impact performance figures: scale, pace, and efficiency. This research effort seeks to standardize the components for and process of impact performance analysis, describing each step of the analytic process the GIIN has developed that can be used for aggregate investment-, fund-, or portfolio-level analyses.

This guide supports impact-driven investors in developing an investment strategy that accomplishes real-world change. The authors have reviewed existing research and synthesized the available evidence to offer practical recommendations on how to maximize impact. The guide is focused on the impact of the investor herself, as opposed to the impact investee companies create.

In India, there has been a rise in the number of social enterprises and a growing interest in impact investing, as social enterprises look to expand and seek alternate means of funding. However, there is a knowledge gap among entrepreneurs and accelerators in understanding the legal landscape and managing negotiations related to impact investing in India. This report is an attempt to address a gap in the impact investing ecosystem in India, where there are numerous complex structural and legal concepts that require understanding, both for investors and entrepreneurs.

Blended finance is a strategy that combines capital with different levels of risk in order to catalyze risk-adjusted, market-rate-seeking financing into impact investments. The Blended Finance Working Group identified a number of challenges that arise in structuring blended finance investments. This resource is divided into three sections. Each section includes a downloadable list of key considerations and questions aimed to ensure stakeholders are aware of each other’s motivations and expectations in engaging in a blended finance structure; and links to blended finance case study examples to demonstrate the range of ways each catalytic tool can be leveraged in  blended finance structures.
 

The Centre for Asian Philanthropy and Society benchmarked the philanthropic sector in 15 Asian countries. The analysis ranks the countries on their enabling environment for philanthropic giving. Philanthropic organisations could be potential investors for inclusive businesses (IB) since they are looking for investments with a social and/or environmental impact. Social delivery organisations (SDOs), among them IBs, with a high level of transparency can attract philanthropic investment and thereby mobilise capital.

Blended finance aims to make the financial sector more sustainable and more responsible by unlocking private investment in unprecedented scale to achieve the SGDs – as a matter of good conscience, but also of good business. Financial investments from Development Finance Institutions (DFIs) and the private sector in form of blended finance are critical to build more inclusive businesses. DFIs have a key role to play to influence the participation of institutional investors in blended finance.

This toolkit contains digital tools that are currently used by USAID Missions and implementers; and resources for those attempting to implement digital tools. This toolkit also includes work planning and procurement considerations, including how to encourage implementing partners to explore digital tools and when prizes and challenges can crowdsource innovative solutions to well-defined development problems.