2023 Kirby Prize Finalist Spotlight: Essmart

The Problem Essmart is Working to Solve Essmart is a for-profit social enterprise in India, on a mission to grow rural livelihoods by connecting local retail shops and the customers they serve with high-impact livelihood products. Essmart’s model focuses on the retail shop owners that serve the 900M Indians who live outside of major cities […]

2023 Kirby Prize Finalist Spotlight: Connecticut Veterans Legal Center

The Problem CVLC is Working to Solve Connecticut Veterans Legal Center (CVLC) operates in medical-legal partnership with the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) in Connecticut, and supports veterans recovering from homelessness and mental illness to overcome legal barriers to housing, healthcare, and income.  Through the work of directly representing individual vulnerable veterans, CVLC identifies issues […]

2023 Kirby Prize Finalist Spotlight: Kidogo

The Problem Kidogo is Working to Solve Kidogo is helping to solve the global childcare crisis, and more specifically to address the dearth of quality, affordable childcare for low income women (particularly those living in informal settlements) in East Africa.   Why We’re Excited About Kidogo’s Impact Potential Kidogo has identified many of the root causes […]

2023 Kirby Prize Finalist Spotlight: Hello World

The Problem Hello World is Working to Solve Hello World works to address two interrelated global challenges: the education deficit, in which one in five children do not go to school; and the digital divide, in which 40% of the world’s population is excluded from the Internet.  More specifically, Hello World works to solve the […]

CASE Announces 4 Finalists for the F.M. Kirby Scaling Social Impact Prize

December 2022 From a pool of 180, four social enterprises stood out above the rest in this year’s competition for the Fred Morgan Kirby Prize for Scaling Social Impact, which CASE has the privilege to manage.  One of these four will ultimately be awarded the prize – a $100,000 unrestricted grant to support their achievement of […]

2022 Kirby Prize Finalist Spotlight: Recity

The Problem Recity is Working to Solve Recity works toward a circular economy of plastics. It enables this ecosystem with solutions that align with every stakeholder – including waste generators, brand owners (waste producers), waste workers, recyclers, and urban local bodies – to create a lasting impact in plastic waste management. The organization is providing […]

2022 Kirby Prize Finalist Spotlight: Lwala

The Problem Lwala Community Alliance is Working to Solve Community health systems are the first line of defense in preventing and treating illness–and in ensuring health care for all. In Kenya, the community health system has been characterized by chronic under-investment, health worker shortages, and exclusion of community voice in designing and delivering health services. […]

2022 Kirby Prize Finalist Spotlight: EarthEnable

The Problem EarthEnable is Working to Solve The poorest 1.6 billion people in the world, including 62% of Rwandans and Ugandans, live in dangerous and unhealthy homes. Many of the citizens have dirt floors and mud walls that are infested with bacteria and parasites, have poor ventilation that causes acute respiratory infection and are unsealed, […]

2022 Kirby Prize Finalist Spotlight: Benetech

The Problem Benetech is Working to Solve Access to information is a universal human right.  Yet because of the way books are produced today, more than 90% of published materials remain locked in inaccessible formats that cannot be read by millions of people with reading barriers due to learning differences or disability. Why We’re Excited […]

The Inaugural Kirby Impact Prize: What We Learned

April 2021 When CASE at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business launched the Fred Morgan Kirby Prize for Scaling Social Impact in July 2020, we knew that we would learn a lot during this inaugural year.  We were specifically interested in three questions: Even as we share our year 1 reflections below, we’re committed to […]