Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl Wudunn Announce Half the Sky Movement: The Game to Help Empower Women and Girls Around the World

Pulitzer-Prize winning authors Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn announced this morning the March 4^th launch of the latest installment of the Half the Sky Movement: a web-based game. Half the Sky Movement: The Game is a game-based adventure that aims to reach mainstream audiences to raise awareness and donations to empower women and girls around the world.

Congratulations to Lisa Hall!

Many congratulations to Lisa Hall, Tides board member and CEO of the Calvert Foundation, for her recognition by Good Business New York as one of the Leading Women in 2012. Lisa was recognized for her work with the Calvert Foundation to help improve the lives of women world-wide, and specifically for her stewardship of WIn WIN: The Women Investing in Women Initiative. Excerpts from the Good Business New York Leading Women press release about the award and Lisa's work are below.

Investing for Impact

The term impact investing has been gaining brand value over the past five years. The precursors of community investing and socially responsible investing are ironically being dropped from the conversation as if to imply that impact investing is a brand new phenomenon. While there is innovation inherent in impact investing, it is important to leverage the histories – good and bad – from community development, socially responsible investing, and venture philanthropy in order to support the success, sustainability and scale of the larger social benefit marketplace.

Love and Intellect in Social Change Leadership

Social innovation is a tool, but tools don’t build or fix things. People do. This idea was explored in the first post in this series, which illustrated that despite social innovation’swidely trumpeted potential to solve the world’s problems, it simply can’t. Meaningful and lasting solutions come from

Social Innovation Won’t Save the World

David Bornstein in the NY Times Fixes column recently referred to social innovation as part of a “breakthrough – maybe even a new Enlightenment.” He believes it is creating new and lasting change that is unprecedented in the social sector. But, social innovation faces an undeniable limitation: it is merely a tool. And, like any tool, its impact is determined by the vision of those who use it. Great architecture isn’t created by hammers. It’s created by architects and carpenters with highly developed vision.

Nominations Open for Nation’s Top Honor in Public Interest Computing

Tides Pizzigati Prize will award $10,000 to an open source software developer whose work is helping nonprofit activists succeed.

Georgetown McDonough Global Social Enterprise Initiative Launches Executive In Residence Program

The Global Social Enterprise Initiative (GSEI) at Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business has launched a new Executive in Residence program this fall, welcoming Melissa L. Bradley, chief executive officer of Tides, and Edward Martin, director of marketing excellence and corporate social responsiblity insights at the Hershey Company, as Executives in Residence for the 2012-13 academic year.

Total Portfolio Activation - A Framework for Creating Social and Environmental Impact across Asset Classes

Tides and Trillium Asset Management, LLC (Trillium)  announce today the publication of a new white paper, Total Portfolio Activation - A Framework for Creating Social and Environmental Impact across Asset Classes.

Dispatches from the Field | Impact Investing 101 in Asia

On the heels of a week-long trip to India and subsequent Impact Investment Exchange Asia (IIX) conference in Singapore, I returned to San Francisco inspired by extraordinary change agents who are actively building the field of impact investing. From social entrepreneurs to nonprofit leaders to activists, the grit with which these innovators are tackling poverty via market-driven solutions to health, education, and employment is truly remarkable—and offers lessons for early US efforts as well.

Ultimate Impact: Unifying an Investment Portfolio Within a Donor-Advised Fund

Donor Advised Funds (DAFs) have grown in use over recent decades, serving as the core philanthropic vehicle for community and public foundations and, more recently, being offered through commercial investment firms as a philanthropic option for clients. When linked with an impact investing strategy, the DAF may serve as a unique, focused asset management vehicle for creating a unified portfolio generating financial performance with social and environmental impacts. This Issue Brief introduces the concept and structure of DAFs and explores their potential as impact investing vehicles. The DAF as a core component of a unified investment approach is explored together with discussion of why DAFs are especially suited to impact investing. The potential for DAFs to expand options for impact investors is discussed along with possible barriers to their introduction