Research Task

Suggested Resources

Company/Organizational and Fund Profiles

GuideStar Pro - Information about the missions, programs, and finances of more than 1.7 million nonprofit organizations.

Foundation Directory Online - information and funding history for 140,000+ foundations, corporations, and federal agencies.

Yearbook of International Organizations - detailed information on over 38,000 active international organizations from 300 countries and territories - including intergovernmental (IGOs) and international non-governmental organizations (INGOs).

Capital IQ - profiles of public and private companies and nonprofit organizations.

ImpactAlpha - News on the impact investment sector. Also includes the ImpactSpace database that includes information on and investors and over 4,000 impact investment deals 

Preqin - profiles and screening capability for socially responsible funds and fund managers using industry sectors (renewables, cleantech). Includes ESG ratings. 

Industry/Market Research

IBISWorld - covers a wide range of industries in the US, China, the UK and Australia.

BCC - in-depth market research reports on many sectors within health care, life sciences, agriculture, and environmental and energy sectors 

Profiles of social enterprises and biographical information on social entrepreneurs 

Acumen - a non-profit investment fun that focuses on poverty eradication and providing solutions to the problems of access to water, energy, housing, and medical care.  The organization raises charitable funds to invest equity and debt in enterprises serving low-income people

Ashoka - international organization that promotes social entrepreneurship by affiliating individual social entrepreneurs into the Ashoka organization.  

Capital IQ - Detailed information on company professionals including relationships among firms/organizations and executives

Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation - a global venture philanthropy firm supporting early stage, high impact social enterprises

Echoing Green - a not for profit organization that provides funding to social entrepreneurs; offers a fellowship program that provides seed funding to emerging social entrepreneurs

J.M. Kaplan Fund - a not-for-profit foundation with $146 million assets under management. The foundation primarily focuses on environment, arts, human rights, and public policy. It was established in 1944 and is based in New York City.

Kapor Capital - a venture capital arm of Kapor Center for Social Impact specializing in investments in seed/start-ups and early stage companies; firm focuses on investing in gap-closing info tech start-ups like education, health, fintech, family, communication, and consumer finance among other industries; also invests across every sector, including education, work, finance, justice, food and health.

Mulago Foundation - "finds and funds high-performance organizations that tackle the basic needs of the very poor." The "Our Portfolio" tab outlines funding areas.

New Profit -  venture philanthropy organization that invests in breakthrough leaders and systems change initiatives

Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurs 

Skoll - a foundation "that drives large-scale change by investing in, connecting, and celebrating social entrepreneurs and innovators who help them solve the world’s most pressing problems."  

VillageCapital - venture capital firm specializing in making seed, startup, and early-stage investments; invests in energy, environmental sustainability, agriculture, health and education sector. It prefers to make equity investments for-profit companies operating in the affordable education services across the world with a focus on Africa, Asia and Latin America.

Background information on global social problems/issues

International Encyclopedia of the Social and Behavioral Sciences - Includes over 600 entries covering major theories, approaches, and contemporary issues in social problems; provides insight into how social conditions get defined as social problems, and the ways different people and organizations view and try to solve them.

Venture philanthropy firms and foundations described above in "Profiles of social enterprises and biographical information of social entrepreneurs" also provide background information on global problems/issues