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

PALO ALTO, Calif., March 14 /PRNewswire/ -- 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 Oxford University 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."

    About the Skoll Foundation
    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 http://www.socialedge.org and via the annual Skoll World Forum on
Social Entrepreneurship at the Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship at
Said Business School, 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 http://www.skollfoundation.org.

    DESCRIPTIONS OF 2006 SKOLL AWARDEES
    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 10 million 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

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