About Us
Who we are
Prospera Impact is a concept-stage social venture that connects two worlds: impact investment and local peacebuilding.
It aims to disrupt the traditional conflict transformation model (which is non-profit and heavily reliant on donations and political will) by building evidence that promoting peace can be both impactful and profitable.
Building peace is everyone's business. Without it, nothing and no one can thrive. Yet this indispensable task is often delegated to under-funded local NGOs and governments in the region. Successful entrepreneurial projects in humanitarian or hazard areas usually end when they run out of grant money or when donors' global priorities shift.
Businesses can and should be powerful catalysts for local peacebuilding. But without a business case, the most promising entrepreneurial solutions in conflict or highly violent areas cannot be scaled up. Prospera Impact believes in the power of businesses to drive systemic change in areas where jobs and social cohesion are most needed and aims to build a business case for investors and donors.
Who are peace entrepreneurs?
Prospera Impact was developed with a vision of building a global community of peace entrepreneurs in tackling violence through a social business model. How they do it depends on local dynamics. For instance, it could be a coffee farmer in Colombia employing demobilized guerrillas, or a women's textile cooperative in a violent area in Guatemala. A successful peace entrepreneur has a profitable and scalable local impact business and systematically gathers impact metrics on how it is contributing to local peace in the community.
Blending profit and purpose
We believe in a model of profitability and purpose, in which businesses operating in violent areas unlock the untold stories of social impact and local peace. Impact entrepreneurs tackle the same violence problems as peace charities and governments, but their scalability and sustainability beyond grants make them the most promising for systemic change. More importantly, businesses contribute to an economic ecosystem that offers dignified opportunities for victims and former violence perpetrators.