Microfinance grows as the finance markets fall…

Microfinancing is the one finance mechanism not being impacted by the current crisis in the finance markets. According to Muhammad Yunnus (founder of Grameen Bank and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize for his pioneering work in microfinancing) it continues to grow. The difference between microfinancing and traditional financing is that it is secured on relationships [...]

Social Enterprise Meets Social Network

With the speed of change online, at XL we’ve struggled to find the best online network to use (Right now we have XL groups in Facebook, Ecademy and LinkedIn). So it was great to see Ashoka and Kiva featured in this week’s Newsweek Magazine (“Power to the Bottom”).
If you’re not familiar with these two organisations, [...]

The Clinton Global Initiative – New York to Hong Kong

This week the CGI meets in New York. This will be followed for the first time this December with a second meet taking place in Hong Kong – marking the largest ever gathering of change makers in Asia. Those invited to atted make specific commitments and while attendance is by invitation, the commitments are made public (This is where Branson [...]