Funding for-profits that address a pressing social need can be a promising way to have a positive social impact.
An example of a social enterprise that is regarded as effective within the effective altruism community is Living Goods. It supports a network of community health promoters that sell health products door-to-door and provide basic health counseling in sub-Saharan Africa. GiveWell lists it under the “Other Charities Worthy of Special Recognition” category, but recommends donating to Living Goods rather than investing in them.[1]
Further reading
Wiblin, Robert (2016) Doing good through for-profits: Wave and financial tech, 80,000 Hours, February 15.
A profile of the social startup Wave.
Related entries
impact investing | investing | markets for altruism | socially responsible investing
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GiveWell (2014) Living Goods, GiveWell, November. An evaluation of the social enterprise Living Goods.
Is this entry/tag intended to cover discussing of pros, cons, and best practices for impact investing or ESG investing?It seems like those terms are used more often, and are also good in that they capture the part of the discussion about how the financial returns from this might differ from that of regular investing (and how that could make this strategy overall less good than doing regular investing and then donating the money).Never mind, I’ve just found the Socially responsible investing entry, so I’ve now added each entry as a Related entry on the other one.