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Empowering lives with alternative finance

UNDP AltFinLab pioneers new ways to finance sustainable development and supports country offices and partners in exploring new approaches to financing the SDGs.

Alternative finance mechanisms are rapidly growing to bridge the $2.5 billion funding gap for the sustainable development goal agenda. But despite their great potential, there still aren’t business models and processes available to development practitioners, governments, international organisations, as well as companies, on how to successfully leverage private investments and use innovative financing models to fund development projects.

UNDP AltFinLab supports country offices and partners in understanding and using crowdfunding, social impact bonds, blockchain-based cash transfers, forecast-based finance, peer-to-peer lending, for mobilizing resources and funding solutions to development challenges.

Browse our latest resources.

OUR APPROACH

Portfolio Scan
We analyze your program or portfolio to see how you apply innovative finance mechanisms, review of current skills, capacities, procedures and legislation in place, and review resource mobilization and investment opportunities.
Partnership refferal

We offer market intelligence on potential partners and investors, support negotiations on terms of engagement and division of responsibilities, and design and carry out networking engagement and outreach events.

Idea/prototype and product/service development

We provide support in designing, testing and implementing products/services, including with regard to blockchain for development. We also provide knowhow on decentralized finance (DeFi) project development, and horizon scan, research and analysis for program development.

TADAMON: Where 
good organizations become better.

Trainings & academies

We analyze skill gaps and design trainings/academies on innovative finance. See our Digital Crowdfunding Academy.

Crowdfunding

We design crowdfunding campaigns from concept to launch (reward/donation, equity and P2P), design visual and digital content for engagement and outreach, define the narrative and drive community engagement.

HIGHLIGHTS

PROJECT | INNOVATIVE FINANCE

The TADAMON platform is a tool for improving civil society organizations (CSOs) in 57 OIC (Organization of Islamic Cooperation) member countries by providing visibility, funding, capacity building and knowledge.

BLOG

The Other Bar, powered by UNDP and the FairChain Foundation, is an experiment in Radical Equality, designed to take a bite out of poverty through the simple act of buying a chocolate bar.

RESOURCE | CROWDFUNDING

The Crowdfunding Academy is an interactive training program that empowers and builds the capacities and skills of organizations to prepare and run successful crowdfunding campaigns.

ALTFIN LAB IN NUMBERS

40+

UNDP country offices across all continents

40+

innovative finance and tech projects

400+

people trained in crowdfunding

60+

crowdfunding campaigns

$6.5

million raised

Alternative finance has the power to benefit people who have been underserved for years. It is one of the most significant developments of recent times, and is one of the most exciting areas to undertake research in.

– Dr. John Burton, Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance

DONORS

CONTACT US

Interested in using innovative finance to tackle development challenges? Drop us an email.

We support UNDP offices, governments, and partners in advancing strategic urban innovation to design and implement impactful interventions in cities to transform our society for the better.

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