Skoll Foundation

Two Skoll awardees wrote a piece about Jeff Skoll in The Edmonton Journal, calling him “the greatest Canadian you’ve never heard of.” An excerpt:

“You wouldn’t likely notice Skoll, let alone recognize him, if he passed you on the street. Yet this soft-spoken, unassuming man helped pioneer e-commerce, launched social entrepreneurship and transformed the film industry to make it a force for social good. This Friday, Skoll will be presented with the Order of Canada for his philanthropic work.”

The Global Journal,  a new publication aimed at opinion leaders and policy makers in the development sector, has just put out its Top 100 Best NGOs in the World, and 31 of them are Skoll Awardees. They started with a list of 1,000, then narrowed it down to 400, then these. Read about their criteria and metrics. Congratulations to all:

Partners in Health, Barefoot College, Water for People, Pratham, APOPO, Ceres, Digital Divide Data, Teach for America, Landesa, Root Capital, Saude Crianca, Population and Community Development Association, Gaias Amizonas, Tostan, Escuela Nueva, Aflatoun, Gram Vikas, Search for Common Ground, Center for Digital Inclusion, One Acre Fund, Kickstart, One World Health (founder Victoria Hale, is a 2005 Skoll social entrepreneur), Room to Read, Free the Children, IDE-India, Friends International, ICTJ, Witness, International Bridges to Justice, Injaz Al-Arab, and Global Footprint Network.

Singer Nelly Furtado has donated $1 million to international charity and educational partner, Skoll Awardee Free The Children.  The donation, which the singer earned in one concert for the Qadafi family, will fund two new Free The Children programs supporting girls in Kenya and in the Middle East and North Africa region (MENA).

The announcement was made on stage today by Furtado to more than 18,000 youth following her performance at Free The Children’s We Day event in Toronto, the world’s largest youth empowerment event of its kind. read more

Skoll Awardes Craig and Marc Kielburger of Free the Children have a new column today focusing on something we don’t often think about when it comes to the Middle East conflict: the ecosystem. An excerpt:

“The Jordan River is flooded with sewage, the Sea of Galilee has dipped to historically low levels and the Dead Sea is shrinking. In the Middle East, where disparate communities have fought for centuries over territories linked by these waters, their uncertain future is aggravating political tensions. History is not on its side, but one group hopes to achieve a ‘blue peace’ in this fragile ecosystem. It believes the water that runs across borders can transcend nationhood and ignite talks of political peace. Nature, after all, should be stateless.”

In the column, they talk about Skoll awardee Ecopeace, or Friends of the Earth Middle East, which is working on this very issue. Read the entire article here: http://www.thestar.com/article/1021911–global-voices-water-can-be-a-bridge-to-peace-in-the-middle-east

We Day 2010 brought together 18,000 young people to share their passion and interest in making long-lasting change and kick off a year of action. A project of Skoll grantee Free the Children, We Day was held in the Air Canada Centre, Toronto, on September 30 and Rogers Arena, Vancouver, on October 15. In Toronto, We Day welcomed Nobel Laureate Betty Williams, Deepak Chopra, Alexandre Bilodeau, and Jacob Hoggard to name a few. Magician Scott Hammell shocked the crowd with an amazing stunt, students sang along with K’Naan to the lyrics of ‘Wavin’ Flag’, and were brought to tears to hear Dr. Abuelaish’s inspirational story. read more

Free the Children’s We Day celebrations are scheduled for three days across Canada this Fall — Toronto on September 30, Vancouver on October 15 and Montreal on November 12. Free the Children’s Craig and Marc Kielburger started We Day in 2007 as part of a year-long program called We Schools in Action. The Kielburgers are Skoll social entrepreneurs. read more

2010 Skoll social entreprenuer Scott Gilmore founded Peace Divided Trust on the simple notion that local companies and vendors are generally the most efficient and cost effective source for goods and services in difficult post conflict environments…you just need to find them. Once you do, however, the benefit to the local economy is significant. Since beginning work in Afghanistan in 2006, for example, PDT has directed $476 million in aid money into the local economy. PDT’s story was told in a weekly column called Global Voices on The Toronto Star’s website that happens to be written by fellow Canadian’s Craig and Marc Keilburger, 2007 Skoll social entrepreneurs and co-founders of Free The Children.

Consulting firm McKinsey & Company is focusing on social entrepreneurs currently on “What Matters,” its online platform for talking about key business issues.  Timed in conjunction with the Skoll World Forum, which McKinsey is supporting this year, the current “What Matters” asks the question, “Can social entrepreneurs create large scale change?”  There are currently five essays addressing that question from a series of leaders in the space: read more

Several Skoll social entrepreneurs have active programs in Haiti and may be facing urgent funding needs following yesterday’s earthquake.  Partners in Health, water.org and Peace Dividend Trust work, respectively, on health care, water and sanitation, and peace and humanitarian programs.  We encourage you to visit these organizations websites in the coming days as the extent of the damage becomes clear to see whether they are seeking emergency funding relief and contribute, if you can.  Thanks.

ADDITION:  Free The Children is another Skoll social entrepreneurial organzation working in Haiti.  You can check out their relief efforts here.