SEVEN Fund Grantees
SEVEN is a leader in the field of Enterprise Solutions to Poverty. We ask the question, “How do we support those who are self-determined, action-oriented, and effective?” We find and invest in the innovations of pioneering thought leaders and entrepreneurs inside the world’s poorest nations; we support contrarian research, films, books and competitions that spotlight new role models and diffuse their best ideas. We invite you to explore the work of the some of the individuals we have supported.
Antoinette Schoar researches The Entrepreneurial choice: : To Invest in your Small Business or Accept a Job with a Steady Wage.
Organization: Innovations for Poverty Action
Competition:2010 Open RFP
Laura Hinson is producing a short documentary film highlighting the significance of reconciliation in the development of enterprise solutions to poverty.
Organization:Image Bearer Pictures
Competition:2010 Open RFP
Mariam Ghani, along with Dr. Ashraf Ghani, are developing a monograph and policy paper exploring the role of enterprise solutions to poverty in Afghanistan.
Competition:2010 Open RFP
Peter Heslam and Eric Wood explore the role of faith in creating a successful business.
Competition:2010 Open RFP
Meg Wirth developed Maternova, a global marketplace for ideas and tools saving maternal/newborn lives.
Organization:Maternova
Competition:Mini-Grant
Kate Hickey won the Cinema Prosperite grand prize for a short documentary she produced and edited on TOMS Shoes.
Organization: Kate Hickey, Independent Filmmaker
Competition:Cinéma Prospérité
Blake Mycoskie founded TOMS Shoes in 2006, creating a compassionate and revolutionary business model: One for One.
Organization: TOMS Shoes
Competition:Cinéma Prospérité
Brian O’Hanlon is the founder of Open Blue Sea Farms, one of the world’s first open ocean fish farms.
Organization: Open Blue Sea Farms
Competition:Cinéma Prospérité
Brian Bartelt and Marta Costello are winners of the Cinema Prosperite competition for a short documentary they produced/edited on Open Blue Sea Farms.
Organization: Open Blue Sea Farms
Competition:Cinéma Prospérité
Bailey Klinger
Organization: Harvard University – Entrepreneurial Finance Lab
Competition:Open Enterprise Solutions to Poverty RFP
Mark Milstein is pioneering research that will bring lessons from the US Military's work in enterprise solutions to the public discussion on economic development.
Organization: Center for Sustainable Global Enterprse, Cornell University
Competition: Open Enterprise Solutions to Poverty RFP
Tanguy Bernard and his team explore the relationship between aspirations, culture, and economic outcomes.
Organization: International Food Policy Research Institute
Competition: Open Enterprise Solutions to Poverty RFP
Dambisa Moyo writes and speaks about aid culture and enterprise solutions to poverty in Africa.
Organization: Author
Competition: Mini-grant
Damian and Sebastian von Stauffenburg are developing tools to help investors better understand Microfinance Investment Vehicles.
Organization: Microrate Inc.
Competition: Microfinance and Enterprise Solutions to Poverty RFP
Michael Kremer is helping us better understand the factors that lead to entrepreneurial success for Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs).
Organization: Harvard University and Innovations for Poverty Action.
Competition: Open Enterprise Solutions to Poverty RFP
Dennis Whittle is Advancing Collaboration for Online Marketplaces in the New Development Ecology
Organization: Global Giving
Competition: Open RFP
Misgana Amelga is developing innovative SME financing strategies for Africa through Funding Innovation and Socially Conscious Entrepreneurship through Partnership with the African Diaspora.
Organization: Partners in Development
Competition: Open Enterprise Solutions to Poverty RFP
Michael Miller is using film, original research, and other mediums to explore the nexus of entrepreneurship, faith, and economic development.
Organization: Acton Institute
Competition: Open Enterprise Solutions to Poverty RFP
Lucy writes about her experience watching her mother build a business in Rwanda; Michelle writes about her work teaching in Nepal.
Competition: In the River They Swim Essay Competition
Sondra Myers, Senior Fellow for International, Civic and Cultural Projects and Director of the Schemel Forum, conducts a round table on the “Role of Universities” in Rwanda in conjunction with the development of the Interdependence Handbook.
Organization: University of Scranton
William Kamkwamba is an entrepreneur whose story illustrates how imagination and ingenuity can change a family, a village, and a nation.
Organization: Moving Windmills Project
Competition: Cinema Prosperite
Nancy & Kara Tappan, Larry Jacques write about survival and determinants of poverty.
Competition: VINE
Manuel Garcia explores empowerment of students in rural New Mexico through entrepreneurship.
Organization: Digital Arts Photography Studio
William Kalema writes about technology-driven enterprise solutions in Rwanda.
Organization: Northwestern University
Competition: New Models of Development
Andreata Muforo writes about developing Rwanda’s private sector through entrepreneurial innovations. Organization: Stanford University.
Organization: Stanford University
Competition: New Models of Development
Greg and Karina Robson explore interdisciplinary approaches to integrating the poor into networks of productivity.
Competition: Enterprise Based Solutions to Poverty Essays Competition
Luke Bueche, Clare Halpine, and Pin-Quan Ng discuss approaches to networks of productivity from around the globe.
Competition: Enterprise Based Solutions to Poverty Essays Competition
Dr. Daniel Cummings and Gregory Robson discuss a Framework of Factors and Risk Evaluation for evaluating SME investments in emerging markets.
Competition: VINE
Entrepreneurs create products, services and jobs. They expand economies, improve people's lives, provide employment (high and rising wages) and bring about competition. A competitive environment, in turn, gives rise to efficiency, meritocracy and further innovations and entrepreneurial drive.
The potent combination of entrepreneurship and technological innovation can forge an environment that is conducive to further enterprise, involving even government policy in supporting entrepreneurship and innovation.
