Recipients of 2005 Skoll Social Sector Program Grants

Action Without Borders

www.idealist.org Grant Amount: $100,000 over one year to support the international expansion of Idealist.org

In 1996 Ami Dar launched Idealist.org to create a single directory of Internet-accessible resources for nonprofits. Today, Idealist.org is one of the leading providers of nonprofit resources on the Web with information provided by 45,000 organizations and 5,000 consultants around the world.

Allavida

www.allavida.org Grant Amount: $150,000 grant over two years to increase Alliance magazine’s readership and subscription income, and to create

Allavida’s stated mission is to help people acquire the skills, knowledge, confidence and resources to lead local action and achieve constructive change in their communities. Allavida conducts grantmaking, training, mentoring, capacity building, research and information dissemination. It produces a wide range of publications, including Alliance magazine and country reports on the status of the nonprofit sector.

Alliance for Nonprofit Management, Inc.

www.allianceonline.org Grant Amount: $5,000 grant over one year to the Alliance for Nonprofit Management, Inc., to support merger discussions between the Alliance and the National Council of Nonprofit Associations

Established in late 1997 as a result of the merger of three infrastructure organizations, the Alliance for Nonprofit Management, Inc., is a professional association of individuals and organizations devoted to improving the management and governance capacity of nonprofits. Its mission is to increase the effectiveness of individuals and organizations that provide technical assistance to nonprofits.

Aspen Institute

www.aspeninstitute.org Grant Amount: $150,000 over one year to support the Nonprofit Sector and Philanthropy Program initiative called Enterprising Organizations: New Approaches to Social Problem Solving

The Nonprofit Sector and Philanthropy Program (NSPP) supports research and dialogue on nonprofit organizations and philanthropy. Its research focuses on nonprofit and public policy, foundation policy and practice, and nonprofit relations with business and the market. The Enterprising Organizations initiative seeks to provide new data useful to social entrepreneurs related to access to capital, demonstrating impact, the policy context, and educating and supporting the next generation of social entrepreneurs. In addition to working papers, research into these issues will inform a conference hosted by NSPP, one of a series of gatherings that will explore the broad range of emerging social entrepreneurship approaches and their implications for the future. Each gathering will seek to reach beyond the already converted to catalyze new interest in the field of social entrepreneurship.

BoardSource, Inc.

www.boardsource.org Grant Amount: $200,000 over two years to develop and disseminate knowledge products and services on governance issues to the nonprofit sector

Founded in 1988, BoardSource is dedicated to increasing the effectiveness of nonprofits by strengthening their boards. Today, it is the largest publisher of books, resources, tools and training curricula on nonprofit governance. Skoll funding will help it enhance the accountability and effectiveness of the social sector on a systemic level.

Calvert Social Investment Foundation, Inc.

www.calvertfoundation.org Grant Amount: $400,000 grant over three years to develop and market a $10 million social enterprise fund

Established in 1995 by the Calvert Group and the Ford, Mott and MacArthur foundations, the Calvert Social Investment Foundation (Calvert Foundation) seeks to maximize the flow of capital to social entrepreneurs and to disadvantaged communities they serve. To fulfill this mission, it administers products and services designed to connect traditional sources of capital and organizations benefiting underserved communities.

The Center for Effective Philanthropy

www.effectivephilanthropy.org Grant Amount: $400,000 over two years to support research and development of new assessment tools and comparative data sets to inform effectiveness for the field of philanthropy

Founded in 2000, the Center for Effective Philanthropy’s stated mission is to provide management and governance tools to define, assess and improve overall foundation performance. Its products include comparative assessment tools, publications and programming. Skoll funding will help the center enhance the effectiveness of philanthropy on a systemic level.

Civic Ventures

www.civicventures.org Grant Amount: $75,000 over one year to identify and support senior social entrepreneurs

Working in collaboration with John Gardner in late 1995, Marc Freedman founded Civic Ventures to develop methods to engage older Americans in meeting community needs. Civic Ventures plans to elevate and enable these social entrepreneurs by telling their stories and creating venues to connect and serve them.

Community Foundations of America

www.cfamerica.org Grant Amount: $425,000 over three years to support the Community Foundations of America’s financial institutions marketing initiative

Acknowledging the urgency to respond to increased competition, community foundation leaders came together in 1999 to define the distinct needs of community foundations and develop a strategy to address these urgent needs. These leaders created Community Foundations of America to address three key priorities: technology, marketing and accountability. CFA’s theory of change is that community foundation assets will be significantly increased if the field is using better tools, collaborates with financial institutions and can provide data about its impact in the community.

Duke University

www.fuqua.duke.edu/centers/case/ Grant Amount: $148,000 grant over 21 months to identify a broad range of successful strategies for scaling social entrepreneurs’ programs and to develop case studies

As part of its efforts to play a leading role in developing this new nonprofit business field, the Fuqua School of Business and Duke University launched the Center for the Advancement of Social Entrepreneurship (CASE) in 2002. CASE’s mission is to serve as a research and education center dedicated to promoting social entrepreneurial leadership and exploring innovative ways of adapting business knowledge to address the distinctive challenges of the social sector.

The Foundation Center

www.fdncenter.org Grant Amount: $10,000 over seven months to the Foundation Center in membership support for its core operations and for the San Francisco office

Founded in 1956 during the wake of the McCarthy-era hearings on foundations, the Foundation Center will celebrate its 50th year anniversary in 2006 during another period of public scrutiny. The Foundation Center’s vision is of a world enriched by the effective allocation of philanthropic resources, informed public discourse about philanthropy and broad understanding of the contributions of nonprofit activity to civil society. Its stated mission is to strengthen the nonprofit sector by advancing knowledge about philanthropy in the United States.

Give2Asia

www.give2asia.org Grant Amount: $75,000 over one year to identify and support social entrepreneurs in Asia

Give2Asia was founded in 2000 by the Asia Foundation to promote philanthropy to Asia. In its first three years, Give2Asia has helped more than 500 donors commit $13 million to organizations across Asia, generating $10 in philanthropy for each dollar of operational costs. Skoll support will enable Give2Asia to serve social entrepreneurs and sharing information about social entrepreneurs and their impact with potential funders.

Independent Sector

www.independentsector.org/ Grant Amount: $75,000 over one year for the Panel on the Nonprofit Sector, an independent body convened by leaders in the nonprofit sector to provide input and recommendations to the Senate Finance Committee’s efforts to reform nonprofit legislation

When the Senate Finance Committee issued its first working paper on nonprofit legislation, Independent Sector (IS) prepared a written response and organized experts to testify. The Committee then asked IS to convene an independent national panel to provide recommendations in the spring of 2005. To ensure broad-based input, the Panel on the Nonprofit Sector includes 25 nonprofit and philanthropic leaders working with a Citizens’ Advisory Group, an Expert Advisory Group and five Working Groups designed to reflect the diversity within the sector and include stakeholders from other sectors. The Working Groups were charged with preparing recommendations on governance and fiduciary responsibilities, transparency and financial accountability, oversight and self regulation, the regulatory framework and special needs of small organizations.

Philanthropic Research, Inc. (GuideStar)

www.guidestar.org Grant Amount: $500,000 over two years to Philanthropic Research, Inc., (GuideStar) for operating support linked to its business plan objectives

Founded in 1994, GuideStar is the national database of nonprofit organizations and is the destination on the Web for information on the sector. GuideStar’s stated vision is to connect people and organizations with valuable information to improve the world around them. GuideStar maintains a database of free information on charitable organizations and provides a variety of tools by subscription. GuideStar also partners with government agencies, including the U.S. Department of Commerce, to streamline the process for complying with regulations.

Share Our Strength/Community Wealth Ventures

www.communitywealth.org/ Grant Amount: $375,000 over three years to Share Our Strength’s subsidiary, Community Wealth Ventures, to create a franchise incubator that identifies and develops franchise business opportunities for nonprofit organizations

Share Our Strength, one of the nation’s leading antihunger, antipoverty organizations, has raised more than $100 million through publications, community wealth enterprises, licensing, sponsorship agreements and cause-related corporate partnerships. In 1997, it launched Community Wealth Ventures (CWV) to provide consulting services and to conduct research for both nonprofits and corporations on how to think differently about market-based approaches to social sector activity. CWV is working with the International Franchise Association to establish a national franchise incubator that plans to launch 400 new nonprofit-owned franchises over the next seven years, creating approximately 30,000 jobs of disadvantaged people and generating $30 million in unrestricted funding for the social sector.

Stanford University

www.gsb.stanford.edu/csi/ Grant Amount: $250,000 over one year for annual operating support of the Center for Social Innovation

Established in 1925, the school’s mission is to create ideas that deepen and advance the understanding of management and develop innovative, principled and insightful leaders who change the world. In 1991 GSB founded the Center for Social Innovation to promote innovative, effective and efficient solutions to important social problems by adapting business knowledge and experience to address the challenges faced by the nonprofit sector. This grant was provided as a dollar-for-dollar match for the Stanford Graduate School of Business (GSB) Class of 1995’s alumni fund-raising campaign.

The Tides Center

www.tidescenter.org Grant Amount: $225,000 over one year to support the dissemination of knowledge about fiscal sponsorship and to conduct a feasibility study for global expansion

Since 1979, the Tides Center, a member of the Tides Family of Organizations, has been providing administrative services as a fiscal sponsor to new and emerging nonprofits. The Tides Center is the largest national fiscal sponsor and currently serves 250 projects.

Click here to view the 2004 grantee list