Partners
Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs
The Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs (ANDE) is a global network of organizations that invest money and expertise to propel entrepreneurship in emerging markets. Officially launched in 2009, we are a member-driven organization housed within the Aspen Institute, an international non-profit that promotes enlightened leadership. Our members are the vanguard of a movement that is focused on small and growing businesses (SGBs) that create economic, environmental, and social benefits for developing countries. Ultimately, we seek to build sustainable prosperity in the developing world.
Global Impact Investing Network
The Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN) is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to increasing the effectiveness of impact investing - for-profit investment made to solve social and environment problems.
The GIIN supports collaboration, develops industry infrastructure, and undertakes research and advocacy to foster a coherent impact investing industry. The GIIN’s programmatic agenda is rooted in the challenges investors face. It serves as a forum for identifying and addressing the systemic barriers that hinder the impact investing industry’s efficiency and effectiveness.
The GIIN works to increase dramatically the level and effectiveness of capital that is supporting market-based solutions to social and environmental problems. Our goal is to help foster a coherent impact investing industry that channels investment capital efficiently to accelerate the development of solutions to pressing social and environmental problems. Impact investing can be a powerful complement to philanthropy and government efforts to address many issues, including relief for suffering communities, eradication of disease, stabilization of climate change, provision of basic social services such as housing and sanitation, and development of a green revolution in Africa.
Global Impact Investing Ratings System
GIIRS (which stands for the Global Impact Investing Ratings System) is a comprehensive and transparent system for assessing the social and environmental impact of companies and funds with a ratings and analytics approach analogous to Morningstar investment rankings and Capital IQ financial analytics. It seeks to spark the impact investment movement by providing a tool that is intended to change investor behavior and unlock the potential of this new asset class.
MISSION MARKETS™ is a next generation financial services firm that supports the world’s first comprehensive, FINRA compliant marketplace specializing in the impact and sustainability sectors. The Mission Markets platform brings together leading capital markets, technology, information, and advisory capabilities to empower its members to discover, scale and embrace best practice solutions and products promoting verifiable social and environmental benefits.
Unreasonable Institute accelerates Unreasonable entrepreneurs and their ventures.
Unreasonable Institute is solving the world’s biggest problems by arming the entrepreneurs who can take them on with the mentorship, capital, and network to make it happen.
Each year, Unreasonable Institute unites 25 entrepreneurs from every corner of the globe to live under the same roof for six weeks in Boulder, Colorado. These entrepreneurs receive training and build long-term relationships with 50 world-class mentors, ranging from the co-founder of Google.org, to the CTO of HP, to an entrepreneur who’s enabled over 19 million farmers to move out of poverty. In the process, they also form relationships and build their businesses with 20 investment funds, receive legal advice & design consulting, and pitch to hundreds of potential investors and partners.
The William Davidson Institute (WDI) is a non-profit research and educational institute established at the University of Michigan in 1992. Through a unique structure that integrates research, educational outreach, field-based collaborations, and development consulting services, WDI creates long-term value for academic institutions, partner organizations, and donor agencies active in emerging markets. WDI also provides a forum for academics, policy makers, business leaders, and development experts to enhance their understanding of these economies. WDI is the only institution of higher learning in the United States that is fully dedicated to understanding and promoting actionable business and public policy approaches to addressing the challenges and opportunities in emerging market economies.
The William James Foundation manages socially responsible business plan competitions, which:
Provide sustainable entrepreneurs with detailed and constructive feedback, and a chance at more than $100,000 worth of in-kind prizes and cash. Learn how to enter.
Offer our reading judges an opportunity to use their lifetime of experience to supports projects they find personally meaningful in a way that taps their interest and respects their schedule. See who our judges are, or learn how to become one.
Allow our sponsors to become part of a conversation with the next generation of sustainable entrepreneurs and leading figures in the areas of socially responsible finance, academia, management, and entrepreneurship. Learn more about partnering with the Foundation.
