In 2004, CGAP was looking to create a platform to facilitate knowledge exchange among the global community dedicated to advancing access to financial services. The solution was The Microfinance Gateway (MFG) (www.microfinancegateway.org) .
The Rockefeller Foundation created the Searchlight Network to conduct horizon scanning and forward-looking analysis to spot and track development trends that affect the world's urban poor population.
In India, social enterprises have become a national phenomenon in less than a decade, with a growing ecosystem of supporting players. Yet, despite this impressive growth, little is known about these social enterprises collectively: their geographic and sector distribution, business structure, stage of development, financial viability and funding sources. Intellecap proposed to conduct a survey of this "social enterprise landscape", which was supported by the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and The Rockefeller Foundation.
Access to capital and human resources are the top two challenges Indian social enterprises face. Already juggling to bring together capital, a viable business model and market knowledge, social entrepreneurs face human resource (HR) challenges that impact their ability to scale, become sustainable and achieve social impact. Intellecap partnered with Potencia Ventures and the International Finance Corporation (IFC) to study these issues in detail.