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What We Do

The Aspen Institute is an educational and policy studies organization based in Washington, DC. Its mission is to foster leadership based on enduring values and to provide a nonpartisan venue for dealing with critical issues.

To explore what we do by work type and/or issue area, select from the dropdowns below.

Displaying What We Do: Economy

Society of Fellows Vanguard Discussion Reception: Empowering the Poor in the Digital Age

Event | July 11, 2013 |

Aspen, CO

Featuring Leila Janah, Founder and CEO, Samasource. This event is exclusively offered to Society of Fellows Vanguard Chapter supporters. Read More

Society of Fellows Discussion Reception: Back From the Brink: Resolving the Debt Crisis

Event | July 8, 2013 |

Aspen, CO

This event is exclusively offered to Society of Fellows supporters. Read More

Business & Society Leaders Forum

Business and Society Program

For Corporate Responsibility Executives The Aspen Business & Society Leaders Forum engages, by invitation, senior executives pushing the boundaries of what it means to be a socially... Read More

Leading the Pack, On Par, or Shaky? Benchmarking Loan Program Performance

Publication | September 30, 2012 | Luz Gomez & Joyce Klein

Economic Opportunities Program

This guide illustrates a step-by-step process that organizations engaged in microlending can use to generate benchmarking data related to lending on the microTracker site. Read More

Microenterprise Development as Job Creation

Publication | February 1, 2013 | Elaine Edgcomb and Tamra Thetford, with Ilgar Alisultanov

Economic Opportunities Program

This report, funded by the Annie E. Casey Foundation as part of the “Big Ideas for Jobs” project, details the role that microbusinesses – firms that employ five of fewer workers – play in supporting... Read More

Benchmarking the Performance of Business Development Services

Publication | September 30, 2012 | Elaine Edgcomb & Tamra Thetford

Economic Opportunities Program

This guide illustrates a step-by-step process that organizations providing business development services can use to generate benchmarking data related to these services on the microTracker site, and... Read More

Income Patching among Microentrepreneurs

Publication | January 30, 2013 | Tamra Thetford

Economic Opportunities Program

How are microentrepreneurs combining self- and wage employment in today’s economic context? This issue of our Trendlines series uses data from FIELD’s microTracker client outcomes survey to analyze... Read More