While some might argue that the world is a much better place than it was thousands, hundreds of years, or even decades ago, it's hard not to feel like the world’s problems are greater than ever. In the past five years alone we've experienced a string of heart-wrenching global crises that have come fast and furious.
Haiti, India, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Puerto Rico, and the Dominican Republic have all been hit by terrible natural disasters. We've seen the Syrian civil war, Venezuelan and Afghanistan refugee crises', and the Rohingya genocide to name a few. Exacerbating these catastrophes is the COVID-19 global pandemic. So despite our progress, it often feels as if the world's needs are greater than ever and we have a long way to go before approaching anything resembling true equality.
Enter today's guest, Natasha Freidus, Co-Founder and CEO of NeedsList; a Public Benefit Corporation creating human-centred solutions for communities displaced by climate change, conflict, and poverty worldwide. The idea for NeedsList was sparked in 2015 at the height of the refugee crisis in Europe when Tasha was in France trying to help local Syrian refugee families, and her co-founder Amanda Levinson was in Philadelphia trying to figure out how more quickly and effectively gets goods and services across the globe to those in need.
The challenge is that the needs of people in crises are overwhelming and constantly changing, and it is difficult to keep track of what is needed and which organizations have the products, services, or expertise to meet those needs. In short, matching supply and demand has been incredibly difficult. That’s when Tasha decided to hack an online wedding registry as a way to solve the problem; in the process, the idea for NeedsList was born.
During this episode, Tasha and I discuss how and why it's so difficult to match supply from well-meaning groups and organizations with the needs of people on the ground who are suffering through crises. Our conversation spans the gamut from the original problem Tasha experienced first hand, the journey to founding and funding NeedsList, the evolving nature of global crises over the past decade, and the challenges around impact measurement & management. And be sure to stay tuned to the very end when Tasha discusses the opportunities she’s seeing to use machine learning and AI to gain new insights into the nature and causes of global crises so that we can address the problems before they happen.
Resources from this episode:
29 - The causes of wealth inequality that no one is talking about
28 - A technology solution for solving the riddle of impact measurement and management
27 - Building better private equity structures and practices for a more equitable world
26 - Behind the scenes with an impact fund startup investing in African SMEs
25 - Leveraging employee ownership to fight wealth inequality
24 - The Purpose of Capital with Jed Emerson
23 - Breaking the shareholder primacy paradigm with alterantive ownership models
22 - Empowering indigenous innovators & communities
21 - Harnessing the vast untapped potential of newcomers to Canada
20 - How the Equality Fund is using Impact Investing to Fuel Feminist Futures
19 - Fighting a $200 Billion per year predatory industry using microfinance
18 - How Blended Finance is being used to massively scale the amount of capital for impact investments
17 - Around the world of impact investing with Rehana Nathoo
16 - Reinventing Commercial Banking for Good
15 - The best social return on investment? The case for delivering micro nutrients during the first 1,000 days of life
14 - Pioneering high-impact investments that create opportunity for the world's most vulnerable people
13 - Revitalizing the Indigenous economy by investing in Indigenous entrepreneurs
12 - Serving high net worth individuals, foundations, and institutions
11 - How to profit off the transition to a low carbon economy
10 - Challenging traditional philanthropy
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