In fact, we are releasing a new report through our work with the Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs (ANDE) that shows why impact capital investors face far greater challenges in creating efficient investment ecosystems than traditional VCs. Among the challenges: due diligence is conducted remotely; syndicates are assembled globally but impact measured locally; and the majority of impact investments still come from wealthy individuals or family foundations — not the corporate or professional money that supports the U.S. VC machine. Our report seeks to identify where opportunities exist to create consistent sources of capital flows to these socially-minded businesses, so they won’t have to scramble for new money at each stage of development. We hope this will catalyze exponentially better chances of success and therefore greater impact to the base-of-pyramid communities, creating nuclei for economic growth and systemic alleviation of poverty. The full report can be found here.

Thane Kreiner, Ph.D., executive director of the Center for Science, Technology, and Society at Santa Clara University. http://www.scu.edu/socialbenefit/index.c fm