GIW 2017

Over the past 10-15 years, entrepreneurs, impact investors, incubators and accelerators, foundations, development banks, major donors, and even some large-scale corporations have been working hard to reach those living at the base of the pyramid (BOP) by building, investing in, and supporting for-profit businesses that reach poor customers. Unlike traditional development projects that often rely heavily on government or philanthropic grant funding, for-profit enterprises can both sustain themselves and grow over time as long as the product offered elicits sufficient demand and revenues from its buyers. That said, there are going to be limits to whom for-profits can reach. At some point, a potential customer will simply not have enough money to buy the good or service. This begs the question of how deeply down into the BOP for-profit enterprises can reach while still achieving profitability, financial sustainability, and scale? A consortium of leading experts in the impact investing and social enterprise space will share findings from new research, being shared for the first time, on 20 enterprises operating at the BOP, finding that they, in fact, are able to reach quite deeply and teasing out the conditions that have enabled some to reach deeper than others. The findings suggest that donor organizations and impact investors can effectively use for-profit organizations to deliver needed goods and services to the very poor, and can do so at scale and in a long-term sustainable way. Join several experts who led the research as well as two of the USAID-supported businesses to learn more.