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Skoll Makes Awards to 10 Leading Social Entrepreneurs

We're proud to announce the 10 recipients of 2007 Skoll Awards for Social Entrepreneurship. Each will receive a three-year grant of $1,015,000 to target a social issue in need of urgent attention.

The winners are Escuela Nueva Foundation, Friends-International, Global Footprint Network, Gram Vikas, Kashf Foundation, Free The Children, Manchester Bidwell Corporation, Marine Stewardship Council, Verité and YouthBuild USA.

The Skoll Awards for Social Entrepreneurs honor and provide support to organizations led by social entrepreneurs who have demonstrated a track record of pioneering social innovations and who are poised to increase or expand the impact of their work. They are advancing solutions in six critical issue areas: tolerance and human rights, health, environmental sustainability, peace and security, institutional responsibility, and economic and social equity.

The awardees will receive their awards from Skoll Foundation Chairman Jeff Skoll on March 28 at the fourth annual Skoll World Forum on Social Entrepreneurship at the University of Oxford in England. The World Forum brings together outstanding practitioners and thought leaders in social entrepreneurship from around the world to set the future agenda for visionaries who want to transform society.

Sally Osberg, President and CEO of the Skoll Foundation, said, "This year's awardees – as in past years – all reflect the essence of a Skoll social entrepreneur: a practical innovator who creates sustainable engines at the grassroots level, putting into place the lasting means to get housing, education, health care and other critical resources to the world's impoverished and vulnerable billions. They offer a model for a new kind of leader who melds the discipline of business with the perspective of those less fortunate, and brings a tough-minded optimism to bear on the biggest challenges confronting our communities, our countries and the planet."

Here are more details about each awardee:

Escuela Nueva Foundation – With rural Colombian teachers, Vicky Colbert created the Escuela Nueva (New School) model to revolutionize education for underserved children through a more flexible approach and stronger school-community relations. She started the Escuela Nueva Foundation to help expand this local curriculum into an effective national policy and international movement. Escuela Nueva now reaches 5 million children in 14 Latin American countries, Uganda and the Philippines. With support from Skoll, it will reach 1.5 million more children by 2009.

Free The Children – Craig Kielburger started Free The Children with his brother Marc to fight poverty, exploitation and powerlessness among their peers. Their early classroom fund raisers have evolved into an international organization with 1,000 chapters in schools across the U.S. and Canada. Each year more than 200,000 students in its Youth in Action groups sponsor community service events and activities that support overseas development projects. With Skoll funding, the organization plans to establish 800 more groups in the U.S. that raise an additional $1.5 million per year by 2009.

Friends-International – Sébastien Marot started Friends-International in Cambodia to offer holistic services to street children that allow them to reintegrate in society and become productive citizens. He also established the ChildSafe campaign to encourage the wider community and businesses to be directly involved in protecting children. Sébastien and his team now devote their energy to developing an international network of organizations that provides services to more than 85,000 street children per year. With Skoll funding, they plan to involve 50 more partners in eight countries within five years, ultimately serving 500,000 children each year.

Global Footprint Network – Mathis Wackernagel created the Ecological Footprint as part of his Ph.D. in regional planning. Susan Burns, an engineer, founded one of the first sustainability consultancies for businesses. The couple launched Global Footprint Network in 2003 to advance the Ecological Footprint, a tool that tracks the extent to which human demand on nature exceeds what planet Earth can regenerate. This measure, applied by three countries and hundreds of cities, counties and organizations, has become a leading sustainability indicator. Global Footprint Network's goal is to institutionalize the Ecological Footprint in at least 10 key nations by 2015.

Gram Vikas – Joe Madiath founded Gram Vikas in India in 1979 to provide renewable energy and has transitioned its focus to encompass a community-based model of development. He believes every home must have running water and sanitation before villagers will collectively seek a better quality of life through education, job training, women's rights and healthy practices. This model has been implemented in 289 villages, reaching 22,347 households. With Skoll support, Gram Vikas plans to bring water and sanitation to 100,000 more families by 2010.

Kashf Foundation – Inspired by Muhammad Yunus, Roshaneh Zafar quit her job and established the Kashf Foundation in 1996. Ignoring warnings from naysayers, she started a microfinance program focusing on women in Pakistan. Kashf delivers collateral-free microloans, savings and life insurance products to poor women through branches that become sustainable within 18 months. Thirty-five percent of its clients move out of poverty within three years. Kashf made 228,603 loans during 2006, has 135,797 clients and maintains a recovery rate of 99.9 percent. It intends to expand its operations to 1 million clients by 2010.

Manchester Bidwell Corporation – Bill Strickland founded Manchester Craftsmen's Guild and later added Bidwell Training Center to introduce youths in poor urban environments to arts and career education in beautiful surroundings with state-of-the-art equipment. The Pittsburgh programs connect arts knowledge and skills with academic standards, citizenship and life disciplines and serve more than 2,500 youths per year. With support from Skoll, replication programs in six cities will serve 1,800 additional youths by 2009.

Marine Stewardship Council - Rupert Howes' financial training and experience with nonprofit organizations convinced him "we must work with the grain of the market to shift our economic system to a more sustainable footing" to create a world that operates within ecological limits. As CEO of Marine Stewardship Council (MSC), he focuses on reversing the decline in global fish stocks through MSC's marine certification and eco-labeling programs. Today 500 MSC-labeled products from 22 certified fisheries are sold in 26 countries. Skoll funding will help MSC strengthen its presence in Europe and the U.S. and expand into the Asia-Pacific region.

Verité –When Dan Viederman came to Verité in 2001, he took the organization beyond its factory audit roots and engaged workers in a solutions-driven, participatory model that improved working conditions for 200,000 workers by 2005. Verité's reputation for credibility and impact has prompted international firms such as Gap, Levi's and Starbucks to seek its help for major restructurings. With support from Skoll, Verité will strengthen partnerships with nongovernmental organizations in dozens of countries and will train 1,500 practitioners to replicate its model by the end of 2009.

YouthBuild USA - Dorothy Stoneman started YouthBuild to create a positive future for low-income young people. The organization offers alternative schools where the youths complete high school and build affordable homes while transforming their own lives. Each year YouthBuild programs engage 8,000 youths in local programs supported by the national YouthBuild USA organizations in 42 states and produce affordable housing for 1,000 low-income or homeless families. Skoll support will help 500 YouthBuild graduates tell their stories to millions of Americans, expand the program and fund a re-entry program for adjudicated youths in three states.

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Follow the Forum on Social Edge

Registration for the 2007 Skoll World Forum on Social Entrepreneurship closed weeks ago, but you will be able to follow the action at the forum next week on Social Edge, the Skoll Foundation's Web site for and by social entrepreneurs.

The Skoll World Forum convenes an international community of outstanding practitioners and thought leaders in social entrepreneurship to set the future agenda for visionaries who want to transform society. This year we are expecting about 700 participants from 40 countries on six continents. Click here to view the official program for the forum.

Among the speakers featured at March 27-29 conference will be Jeff Skoll, founder and Chairman of the Skoll Foundation and Participant Productions; Muhammad Yunus, 2006 Nobel Peace laureate, Grameen Bank founder and microfinance pioneer; Peter Gabriel, musician, activist, cofounder and Chair of WITNESS; David Galenson, Professor in the Department of Economics at the University of Chicago and best-selling author of numerous books on creativity and innovation; Dr. Larry Brilliant, Executive Director of Google.org and founder and former Director of the Seva Foundation; Bill Drayton, CEO and Chair of Ashoka; Jeroo Billimoria, founder of Aflatoun; Fazle Abed, founder of BRAC; Susan Collin Marks, Senior Vice President of Search for Common Ground; Ashok Khosla, President of Development Alternatives Group; Nina Smith, Executive Director of RugMark Foundation USA; J.B. Schramm, founder and CEO of College Summit, Inc.; and Salman Ahmad, Pakistani musician, artist, activist and founder of South Asia’s internationally renowned rock band, Junoon.

Social Edge is currently hosting several pre-Forum online events. The entire conference will be available online, including streaming video. Seventeen bloggers, including three Skoll awardees, will offer their thoughts about the proceedings. After the Forum, the video files of the sessions taking place in the Sheldonian and Nelson Mandela theaters, along with the video interviews and the blogs, will be archived on Social Edge.

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Skoll's ‘Idol' Connection

What possible involvement could the Skoll Foundation have with the American Idol television show? A grant from the foundation is underwriting Web site development by Scholastic to engage U.S. school communities in a new event called Idol Gives Back, a two-night special on April 24 and 25 that will help raise awareness and funds for children and young people in extreme poverty in America and Africa. Two organizations that have received Skoll Awards for Social Entrepreneurship, Free The Children and CAMFED, will be profiled in the Scholastic program content.

FOX and the Charity Projects Entertainment Fund (CPEF) have partnered with the creators of American Idol on the television event. Funds raised by the special will be distributed in the U.S. to Save the Children and other U.S. organizations working with children in some of the most disadvantaged areas of America. In Africa, the money will help deliver health and education programs and will be distributed via CPEF to a number of organizations, including the U.S. Fund for UNICEF; The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria; Save the Children; NothingButNets.net; and Malaria No More.

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Just What Is a Social Entrepreneur?

In the current spring 2007 issue of Stanford Social Innovation Review, two Skoll Foundation leaders call for a more rigorous definition of social entrepreneurship in the lead article, "Social Entrepreneurship: The Case for Definition."

Sally Osberg, president and CEO of the Skoll Foundation, and Roger L. Martin, a foundation board member and dean of the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto, write: "We would argue that the definition of social entrepreneurship today is anything but clear. As a result, social entrepreneurship has become so inclusive that it now has an immense tent into which all manner of social beneficial activities fit."

To read the article, click here. You can post a review of the article or your comments at the end of the article.

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NOW to Receive PBS Fund Grant

PBS and the PBS Foundation have selected NOW, a weekly news and public affairs program hosted by David Brancaccio, as the first recipient of a competitive grant from the PBS Foundation Social Entrepreneur Fund, which was established with a $2.5 million grant from the Skoll Foundation. The fund enables filmmakers, documentarians and other journalists to produce work that promotes large-scale public awareness of social entrepreneurship and highlights individuals who are pioneering innovative solutions to social issues.

NOW, which airs on PBS each Friday at 8:30 p.m. (check local listings), was awarded $1.25 million to produce up to 20 "Ideas That Work" reports through 2008 that focus on social entrepreneurs around the globe. PBS received 97 proposals for consideration during the first round of funding.

A call for proposals for the second round of funding through the grant is available on the PBS Web site at www.pbs.org/producers/funding.html. Proposals for Round 2 must be delivered to PBS no later than June 1, 2007. All Round 2 productions must be completed and delivered by November 30, 2008.

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2006 Annual Report Now Available

The Skoll Foundation's annual report for FY 2006 may be viewed online here. The 52-page booklet includes the foundation's mission, vision, initiatives and financial information. It lists all grants awarded during the year and profiles recipients of Skoll Awards for Social Entrepreneurship in six issue areas: Karen Tse of International Bridges to Justice (tolerance and human rights), Andrea and Barry Coleman of Riders for Health (health), Albina Ruiz of Ciudad Saludable (environmental sustainability), Sakena Yacoobi of Afghan Institute of Learning (peace and security), Mindy Lubber of Ceres (institutional responsibility) and Taddy Blecher of CIDA City Campus (economic and social equity).

A hard copy of the report may be requested by sending an email to info@skollfoundation.org.

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Skoll Wins Communications Awards

The Skoll Foundation has been notified that it will receive two Wilmer Shields Rich Awards for excellence in communications at the annual conference of the Council on Foundations on April 30 in Seattle. The foundation has been named a Gold Award winner for its 2005 annual report and a Silver Award winner for this e-newsletter. Both awards are in the category of foundations with assets of $250 million or more.

The 2005 annual report may be viewed online here.

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Skoll Welcomes Three New Program Officers

We are pleased to announce that three new program officers have joined our growing team at the foundation. Senior Program Officer Dan Crisafulli was comanager of the Development Marketplace at The World Bank for the past three years and previously was an investment officer at the International Finance Corporation and a private sector finance specialist at The World Bank.

Program Officer Lakshmi Karan was a consultant to Fortune 500 companies, specializing in knowledge management and training. In 1999 she decided to dedicate herself to social betterment. She interned with the Asia Foundation and worked as a consultant to Earthwatch Institute, Oxfam America and the Reebok Human Rights Program, focusing on economic development and human rights. She also served as program manager for the Alchemy Foundation.

Our newest program officer, Bridget McNamer, was a program design consultant for the Northern California Grantmakers Association. She previously worked for Bank of America, first as manager of corporate sponsorships and later as vice president and program officer for the bank's Charitable Foundation. She was a consultant in global public affairs for Levi Strauss & Co. and a program manager for Business for Social Responsibility.

Please join us in welcoming them to the Skoll Foundation community.