December 21, 2005

Registration Begins For 2006 Skoll World Forum

PALO ALTO, Calif.—December 21, 2005—The Skoll Foundation announced today that the 2006 Skoll World Forum on Social Entrepreneurship is now open for registration at http://www.sbs.ox.ac.uk/skoll/forum/.

The event, which is the largest gathering of leading thinkers and practitioners in the field of social entrepreneurship, will take place March 29-31, 2006, at the Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship at Said Business School at Oxford University in the United Kingdom. It will focus on leveraging assets and growing social capital markets to create social and environmental impacts.

The Skoll World Forum will build on current efforts in philanthropy, social investing and corporate social responsibility by bringing together experts from the worlds of social change and capital markets. Among the speakers will be:

• Jeff Skoll, founder and chairman of the Skoll Foundation and founder and CEO of Participant Productions
• Al Gore, former vice president of the United States, and David Blood, former CEO of Goldman Sachs Asset Management, now both with Generation investment Management
• Ian Goldin, vice president of the World Bank
• Victoria Hale, CEO of Institute for OneWorld Health, which develops drugs to tackle diseases that disproportionately affect people in developing countries
• Karen Tse, CEO of International bridges to Justice, which promotes human rights in Asia
• Muhammad Yunus, founder of the Grameen Bank and pioneer of microfinance

Among the themes that will be explored are how to expand financial resources to create social and environmental impacts, how to replicate and scale up pilot programs in social investing and corporate social responsibility, cutting-edge innovations in social-benefit finance, how to harness market forces for social good through the creation of a social stock market and longer-term investment funds that factor in social and environmental risks, and ways that world-class social entrepreneurs leverage financial assets to build communities and create value.

Those who will benefit from attending the 2006 event include social entrepreneurs, philanthropists, social investors, investment analysts, charity asset managers, private wealth advisers, policy makers, corporate leaders and journalists, as well as anyone interesting in learning more about the key players and concepts involved in social entrepreneurship.

The conference fee ranges from £200 to £700, with discounts of as much as 50 percent for “early bird” bookings received by January 31. Financial assistance is available for social entrepreneurs from developing countries.

Details on the program, speakers and registration are available online at http://www.sbs.ox.ac.uk/skoll/forum/. For inquiries about registration, please email skollhelpdesk@sbs.ox.ac.uk or call +44 (0) 114-276-0577.

About the Skoll Foundation

Headquartered in California’s Silicon Valley, 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 Oxford University. 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.

About the Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship

The Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship was launched in November 2003 at Said Business School, Oxford University, to promote the advancement of social entrepreneurship worldwide. It was created with a donation of £4.44 million by the Skoll Foundation, the largest funding ever received by a business school for an international program in social entrepreneurship. For more information, see www.sbs.ox.ac.uk/skoll.