The Skoll Foundation - "Investing in, connecting and celebrating social entrepreneurs" | Article

PALO ALTO, Calif.—March 14, 2006—The Skoll Foundation today announced it is awarding $13 million to recipients of the 2006 Skoll Awards for Social Entrepreneurship and $3 million to Ashoka for a partnership to help build the field of social entrepreneurship.

The Skoll Awards for Social Entrepreneurship honor and provide support for established organizations led by social entrepreneurs who are applying innovative and effective approaches to resolve critical social issues around the world. This year, 16 organizations are receiving the three-year grant investments, including three organizations that are receiving follow-on funding.

The Skoll Awards are designed to advance solutions to critical social challenges of our time and recognize programs effecting positive and measurable change in six issue categories: tolerance and human rights, health, environmental sustainability, economic and social equity, institutional responsibility, and peace and security. Each year’s recipients are identified through an open competitive process that honors social entrepreneurs whose work has already demonstrably improved the lives and circumstances of marginalized, disadvantaged or disenfranchised populations throughout the world.

Skoll Award funding supports the expansion and larger-scale replication of awardee programs. The award winners also are eligible to apply for program-related investments from the foundation during the three-year grant period.

In addition to naming the Skoll Award recipients, the Skoll Foundation announced a $3 million, three-year field-building partnership with Ashoka, a global organization based in Arlington, Va. With a 25-year history and a global network of more than 1,700 social entrepreneurs in 60 countries, Ashoka is a key Skoll partner and is instrumental in developing and cultivating a pipeline for social entrepreneurship worldwide.

The competitive Skoll Awards will be personally presented by Skoll Foundation Chairman Jeff Skoll on March 30 at the third annual Skoll World Forum on Social Entrepreneurship at the University of Oxford in England. The World Forum convenes a global community of outstanding practitioners and thought leaders in social entrepreneurship to set the future agenda for visionaries who want to transform society.

The organizations receiving three-year 2006 Skoll Awards for Social Entrepreneurship through the open competition have all proved effective at a local or regional scale and are poised to expand to a national or multinational scale. They are: Afghan Institute of Learning, $480,000; Benetech, $1,215,000; Ceres, Inc., $525,000; Child Savings International, $765,000; CIDA City Campus, $1,015,000; Ciudad Saludable, $615,000; College Summit, Inc., $1,515,000; Health Care Without Harm, $765,000; Institute for Development Studies and Practices, $450,000; International Bridges to Justice, $765,000; Renascer Child Health Association, $615,000; Riders for Health, $765,000; Room to Read, $1,215,000; Roots of Peace, $765,000; Search for Common Ground, $765,000; and VillageReach, $765,000.

The Skoll Foundation’s mission is to advance systemic change to benefit communities around the world by investing in, connecting and celebrating social entrepreneurs—individuals dedicated to pioneering new solutions that result in lasting improvements to complex social problems.

“Idealism and money alone, while valuable, can’t resolve the highly complex root causes of poverty, disease, illiteracy or strife that plague so many areas of the world today,” said Sally Osberg, President and CEO of the Skoll Foundation. “Effecting true and lasting change also demands a deep understanding of the many forces shaping a community, endless ingenuity and, finally, perhaps most importantly, a clear-eyed practicality. The awardees we’ve selected—whose work ranges from increasing access to critical medicines through motorcycle maintenance to improving the health of rural poor through community waste management—and the measurable improvements they’ve achieved, all reflect the essence of a Skoll social entrepreneur: a practical innovator who resolves social problems and builds civil society’s infrastructure and effectiveness.

“As we have done in preceding years, we’ve cast our net across the globe to find the world’s most effective social entrepreneurs,” said Osberg. “Each organization in our portfolio of Skoll Awards for Social Entrepreneurship is tackling a complex social problem in order to promote healthy, sustainable communities. And each one is poised to expand that model to a new level. Together, these organizations represent an incredibly powerful force for systemic social change.”

Headquartered in California’s Silicon Valley, the Skoll Foundation was created by eBay’s first president, Jeff Skoll, to promote his vision for a more peaceful and prosperous world. Today the Skoll Foundation advances systemic change to benefit communities around the world by investing in, connecting and celebrating social entrepreneurs—individuals dedicated to pioneering new solutions that result in lasting improvements to complex social problems.

The Skoll Foundation invests in social entrepreneurs through the Skoll Awards for Social Entrepreneurship. It connects them through Social Edge, an online community at www.socialedge.org, and via the annual Skoll World Forum on Social Entrepreneurship at the Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship at Said Business School, University of Oxford. It celebrates social entrepreneurs through projects such as The New Heroes, a public television documentary series that tells 12 dramatic stories of social entrepreneurs who bring innovative, empowering solutions to intractable social problems around the world. For more information, visit www.skollfoundation.org.

The organizations receiving Skoll Awards for Social Entrepreneurship through the open competition are:

Afghan Institute of Learning (AIL) , which works to restore education and health programs and empower community leadership in Afghanistan.
Grant: $480,000 over three years to expand its teacher-training program and partnership network to 100 additional community-based organizations.
Social entrepreneur: Sakena Yacoobi

Benetech, which employs technology to address social problems.
Grant: $1,215,000 over three years to expand existing programs, such as the dissemination of information on human rights abuses and the development of electronic book libraries for use by people with disabilities. The organization will also create new projects.
Social entrepreneur: Jim Fruchterman

Ceres, Inc. , which advances corporate environmental and social responsibility to a growing network of major institutional investors.
Grant: $525,000 over three years to persuade more U.S. companies to disclose social and environmental impacts and to address the risks of climate change.
Social entrepreneur: Mindy Lubber

Child Savings International , which works to help lift children out of rural poverty by teaching money-saving and financial planning skills.
Grant: $765,000 over three years to replicate a pilot currently serving 70,000 children in India to serve children in 10 to 15 countries.
Social entrepreneur: Jeroo Billimoria

CIDA City Campus , which provides disadvantaged South African youths a chance to earn a four-year bachelor of business administration degree.
Grant: $1,015,000 over three years to open new campuses, increase enrollment and franchise a rural African University Village Model.
Social entrepreneur: Taddy Blecher

Ciudad Saludable , which establishes community-based solid waste management businesses to reduce unhealthy waste volume in municipal landfills and generate income.
Grant: $615,000 over three years for expansion and replication.
Social entrepreneur: Albina Ruiz

College Summit, Inc. , which helps students from disadvantaged communities navigate the college application process.
Grant: $1,515,000 to serve three new communities and 28,000 additional students.
Social entrepreneur: J.B. Schramm

Health Care Without Harm , which helps health care providers avoid the use of toxin-containing products (such as mercury), as well as environmentally harmful practices (such as incineration of medical waste).
Grant: $765,000 over three years to launch a global provider and manufacturer education program.
Social entrepreneur: Gary Cohen

Institute for Development Studies and Practices , which trains and inspires students to become engaged in Pakistan’s economic and social development.
Grant: $450,000 over three years to expand the network of community-based learning institutions in Pakistan.
Social entrepreneur: Quratulain Bakhteari

International Bridges to Justice , which safeguards the rights of citizens by training and supporting criminal defense lawyers.
Grant: $765,000 over three years to expand work in China, Vietnam and Cambodia.
Social entrepreneur: Karen Tse

Renascer Child Health Association , to improve health of poor children in Brazil by addressing conditions that contribute to transmission of disease in impoverished families.
Grant: $615,000 over three years.
Social entrepreneur: Vera Cordeiro

Riders for Health , which improves the delivery of health care to remote areas of Africa through a transport management system.
Grant: $765,000 over three years to expand geographically and raise awareness of transportation in health initiatives.
Social entrepreneurs: Andrea and Barry Coleman

Room to Read, which promotes literacy in the developing world by increasing access to educational resources and establishing community libraries.
Grant: $1,215,000 over three years to serve 1.9 million children, expand to 11 countries and establish 5,700 libraries.
Social entrepreneur: John Wood

Roots of Peace , which promotes sustainable development and enduring peace by converting minefields to vineyards, agricultural fields and wildlife migration corridors.
Grant: $765,000 over three years to expand existing programs in Afghanistan and Angola to national scale and to replicate in other countries.
Social entrepreneur: Heidi Kuhn

Search for Common Ground , which provides conflict- and war-ridden communities with productive methods for reducing strife and negotiating shared paths to peace.
Grant: $765,000 over three years to extend the reach of media productions and achieve measurable changes in public opinion related to conflict in vulnerable areas.
Social entrepreneur: John Marks

VillageReach , which overcomes the “last mile” challenge of providing health care in developing countries by addressing vital infrastructure issues, such as finding suppliers and reliable transportation.
Grant: $765,000 over three years for expansion and replication beyond Mozambique.
Social entrepreneur: Blaise Judja-Sato

Skoll Foundation Awards $16 Million to Nonprofits Around the World in Support of Social Entrepreneurship