The Edge

Nelson Mandela launched the Elders in 2007. The members of The Elders are Kofi Annan, Ela Bhatt, Lakhdar Brahimi, Gro Brundtland, Fernando Henrique Cardoso, Jimmy Carter, Graça Machel, Mary Robinson, Desmond Tutu (Chair) and Muhammad Yunus. Aung San Suu Kyi is an honorary Elder.

They now have a new Web site: The Elders, where you will find comprehensive coverage of their work as well as opportunities to be more involved and informed.
 
For example, The Elders are launching a new initiative demanding the realisation of equal rights for women and girls, with special emphasis on religious and traditional practices that are used to justify and condone discrimination.
 
And you can even ask questions to Archbishop Desmond Tutu! You can take part in a live Q and A with Archbishop Desmond Tutu – to be broadcast worldwide via The Eders' website at 15:00 GMT on Wednesday 8 July. Send your questions via the website, using #asktutu on Twitter, or post a video question on Youtube.
 
You might want to ask what The Elders have been up to so far, what he thinks about current world events or where he got that giggle from. A selection of questions will be asked on the day and you can be sure he will answer them in his own thoughtful, humorous and inimitable way.
 

With Matt Flannery, founder of Kiva, transitioning from blogging to twittering, we thought this would be a good time to help Matt and others joining Twitter to hit the ground running with a list of the best social entrepreneur twitter folks to follow. 

These are folks we have run into in our specifically social entrepreneurship circle.  I'm sure there are many more people we have not yet met, and would like to meet, so I encourage you to comment here with your recommended additions. 

That said, we have selected a few, well 100 to be exact, to get you started on "Twitter for Social Entrepreneurship".  We suggest you start with the first 20 below and see how it goes.  Then start adding in some of the other clever people listed when you are ready. (By the way, if you are considering how to start tweeting for yourself or your organization, see also Twitter and the Social Entrepreneur - a guide to mission-aligned twittering.)

For Social Entrepreneurship--20 essential folks to follow:
@socialedge (that's us!) @skollfoundation @poptech @civicventures @echoinggreen @ashokatweets @changemakers @AshokaGenV @acumenfund @nextbillion @UnLtd @UnLtdWorld @SchSocEnt  @socialcitizen @casefoundation @thinkchangeind @socialearth @BeUnreasonable @socialentrprnr @ideablob

Social Entrepreneurs--an eclectic collection of 20, some small, some large orgs (and there are many, many more not listed), to follow:
@kjer (Forge); @leila_c (@samasource); @mattflannery (@kiva); @camfed (Camfed); @CollegeSummit (College Summit); @staceymonk (@EpicChange); @lend4health (Lend4Health); @SHEnterprises (Sustainable Health Enterprises) @ineedapencil (INeedAPencil.com); @kenyanpundit and @whiteafrican (@ushahidi); @ConsciousChange (Global Grassroots); @playpumps (PlayPumps); @JRandomF (Benetech); @RoomtoRead_MN (Room to Read); @RugMark (RugMark); @fairtradeusa (TransFair USA); @Gillian1Sky (@1Sky, @TheHub @witnessorg); @teachforamerica (Teach for America); @waterpartners (Water Partners) @endovershoot (Global Footprint Network)

Others in the social entrepreneurship field, 20 peeps I like to follow:
@global_x @tomjd @jnovogratz @rodneyschwartz @jongos @slboval @Montero  @judechia @Kevindoylejones @AmiDar @emeka_okafor @trielly @tomwatson @dnbornstein @davepeery @peterdeitz @EncoreTerry @mdangear @stevecase @zyOzyfounder

Philanthropy-related gurus, 20 thought-leaders you should follow:
@Philanthropy @OnPhilanthropy @p2173 @tactphil @Philanthropy411 @philosopher20 @pndblog @fdncenter @gatesfoundation @Grameen_Fdn @idealist @worldchanging @sustainablog @davos @takepart @e180 @startingbloc @atlascorp @dosomething @globalgiving

NP/VC/Tech/social media for social good geeks, 20 great guides to follow:
@kanter @bbravo @afine @mashable @webb @jessicashortall @hildygottlieb  @TechSoup @appafrica @afrigadget @socap09 @SVNetwork @newprofit @SVTgroup @nesta_uk @socialgood @Ventureneer @socialbusiness @socialactions @netsquared

Not enough? See more lists of Twitter recommendations for social entrepreneurs:
by Appfrica
by Echoing Green
by Social Earth
by John Madigan
by ODE magazine
 

More places to find social entrepreneurs on Twitter - see who tweets with the following hash tags or terms
#SocEnt   (social entrepreneur/entrepreneurship)
#SocEntChat  (monthly social entrepreneur chat by Ashoka)
#socialentrepreneur  (for those who don't know about #SocEnt)
#Prize4SC  (prize for social change)
#4change  (that's right, "for change")
#BoP    (base/bottom of the pyramid)
#nonprofit  (self-explanatory)
#nptech (nonprofit technology)
#SSIR  (Stanford Social Innovation Review)

You can even join a twibe...

Follow them all, or follow just @socialedge for the highlights.

And check out all the fine folks who are following @socialedge as they are clearly in the know ;-) and in the social entrepreneur space; including folks like these bonus people to follow: @dallant @jasontclark @christineegger @lkaran @razoo @memeshift @odemagazine  @kitode @knightfdn @vmconnect @willrobinsoniii @bopsource @nakisnakis @philanthropic @cathyhc @Bcorporation @McKQuarterly @neovintage @aspeninstitute @greatbayfdn @universalgiving @robertkatz @changefusion @palm44 @jocelynw @plamb @petrakoon and in March/April @skollworldforum.

Might we need a category for reporters/journalists on the "social entrepreneur" beat or who share the passion?  @nytimeskristof and @jessiwrites come to mind, but I'm sure there are others...

At last year’s NetSquared N2Y3 Mash-up Challenge, the trends centered around the transparency of data, especially in regard to government and corporate information; and opportunities to display data through mapping applications.  The big winners were Ushahidi and Social Actions.  Both continue to make great strides and advances, check them out.

This year’s Net Squared N2Y4 Challenge focused on mobile technology and, building on last year’s accomplishments, this year’s finalists found ways to go beyond transparency of data to actually facilitating action based on that new knowledge.  I've grouped this year’s finalists into three social good trends:

1. those using mobile technology to expedite reporting and response to human rights violations;
2. those providing access to essential data to level the playing field in terms of access to opportunities and knowledge; and
3. those giving communities new ways of addressing issues and contributing to the health of the community.

Below are some more specifics on the finalists, and I encourage you to read their summary on NetSquared (which is linked from their name), and to see their site as well (linked from the url). My personal favorites were FrontlineSMS Medic and the AMIS Project, but they are all quite interesting and you can see who won the various prizes here.

N2Y4 Social Change Mobile Trends #1:
Expediting reporting and response to human rights violations

Reporting human rights violations real-time and improving documentation, awareness, and response time.

• Digital Democracy (dtwo.org) in Burma reduces barriers to reporting of human rights violations through their “Handheld Human Rights” mobile technology efforts.  They are enabling human rights groups and the diaspora to communicate and collaborate, and are striving to improve velocity and timeliness of abuses reports.
• iPeace (infogrouponline.org) is using mobile to expose war crimes in Africa

Leveraging the public’s awareness and influence to pressure governments and corporations into taking timely action to protect human rights.

• IJCentral (ijcentral.org): Leveraging alerts regarding regional conflict, genocide, food aid, and so forth, IJ Central has created a mobile tech campaign platform that encourages and enables citizens to pressure their political leaders at key moments in time and to support the International Criminal Courts efforts to prosecute perpetrators of atrocities.
• SlaveFree (slavefree.info) is enabling the public to pressure manufacturers to ensure they have a just and clean supply/manufacturing chain.

N2Y4 Social Change Mobile Trends #2:
Providing economic and social equity through access to essential knowledge.

Sharing market data to economically empower small-scale farmers.

• AMIS Project (amisproject.pbwiki.com) in Cameroon 
• Datagro (datadyne.org) in Chile
• Equobility (equobility.com) in Kenya 

Providing access to the global employment marketplace for skilled workers at the BoP.

• Cell Alert (cellalert.org) in Pakistan
• SMSOne (smsone.in) in India

Facilitating two-way access to centralized data to improve delivery of rural health services.

• FrontlineSMS Medic (medic.frontlinesms.com) strengthens rural healthcare delivery by connecting community healthcare workers in the field to hospitals, resources, and medical records which speeds diagnosis and treatment in remote areas.

N2Y4 Social Change Mobile Trends #3:
Giving communities new ways to address issues more efficiently.

Connecting communities and local authorities to improve response to concerns.

• PublicStuff (publicstuff.org) connects people with their local governments, involving both sides to better track and resolve service requests
• SeeClickFix (seeclickfix.org) facilitates public documentation of non-emergency community issues and notifies those accountable for public space

Giving a voice to vulnerable populations to enable participation in policy debates.

• FaceTheChange (facethechange.org) engages poor and vulnerable communities in developing countries and empower them to participate in national debates and policy development on climate change
• VozMob (vozmob.net) gives a voice to the disenfranchised and the low-income, immigrant workers whose interests are under-reported in mainstream news media

Turning caring into contributing by providing “easy” volunteer opportunities.

• The Extraordinaries (theextraordinaries.org) delivers micro-volunteer opportunities to mobile phones, thereby enabling people to use otherwise idle micro units of time to do good.

Bonus trends:

From a technical perspective, I saw two interesting developments in mobile: One was the increasingly innovative use cases for texting and specifically the popularity of Frontline SMS to provide access to critical data in emerging economies.  An appropriate technology, it probably has the best chance of fast adoption because the learning curve is small, the technical requirements are most affordable and the reach will likely continue to be far greater in many parts of the world than smart phones for some time.  The other thing on the horizon appears to be the concept of “virtual phones” where multiple people share one device but have separate profiles (so they can have their own messages and possible separate billing?)- we’ll have to watch and see how this develops.

 

Two interviews will help you better understand the impact of social entrepreneurship in a global context. First, Jeff Skoll tells Owen Bennett-Jones of the BBC World Service how he thinks about social change.
 
Then watch Larry Brilliant, recently named President of the Skoll Urgent Threats Fund, as he explains to David Brancaccio on PBS how technology is making it easier for scientists to detect global outbreaks and why early pandemic detection is critically important.
 
And of course, our own Global X keeps interviewing leading social entrepreneurs. Watch John Wood, Gillian Caldwell, Jordan Kassalow and Nina Smith as they share valuable advice to help you scale your social venture!
 


 

Alan M. Webber, cofounder of FastCompany Magazine, recently published his Rules of Thumb: 52 Truths for Winning at Business without Losing Your Self

You may want to check Rule #38: If you want to think big, start small

His point: successful social entrepreneurs like Muhammad Yunus (Grameen Bank), Matt and Jessica Flannery (Kiva) or Sasha Chanoff (Mapendo International) didn't accept the "Get big or get out" rule of traditional VCs.

Instead, they just knew that they were determined to make a difference, and all they had to do to have an impact was to "start small and stick with it."

Alan Webber's advice:

Start!

Alan M. Webber, cofounder of FastCompany Magazine, recently published his Rules of Thumb: 52 Truths for Winning at Business without Losing Your Self

You may want to check Rule #4: Don't Implement Solutions. Prevent Problems.

He writes:

Our friend Sasha Dichter believes that nonprofit CEO's and board members should really think about the revenues side of the equation, as it is is crucial to effective social change.

He writes in his Nonprofit CEO Manifesto:

This weekend, I joined Mike Del Ponte and Rimas Silkaitis from Sparkseed for a teleseminar on "How to use Twitter for Social Entrepreneurship."  Rimas shared how to use Twitter for personal branding and what Twitter apps to use.  I focused on how organizations can use Twitter.  A full summary of the teleseminar will be posted on Sparkseed, but for now, here are my contributions to the discussion:

Twitter can be a great way for social entrepreneurs to reach a wide, yet targeted audience:
•    9.3 M Twitter (March up 131% over February and has passed up LinkedIn for reach.)
•    Nearly one-in-five (19%) online adults ages 18 to 24 have used Twitter/similar services, as have 20% of online adults ages 25 to 34.
•    Median age of a Twitter user is 31. Median age of a MySpace user is 27, Facebook user is 26 and LinkedIn user is 40. [Pew Research Center]
•    People are motivated by learning new things and getting information real-time as it’s developing. [Ann Handley, MarketingProfs, Mashable]

Twitter works best for organizations when your objectives are mission aligned.  Is education part of your mission?  Is activism or public policy change your goal?  Twitter can help you achieve your mission, as well as serving as a useful tool for marketing and communications. In the case of Social Edge, we are focused on helping social entrepreneurs start and scale their venture by connecting them with ideas, resources, and people that can help make them more succesful.  Deadlines for funding oportunities, relevant discussions, fascinating research, stories about other social entrepreneurs, and news from the field of social entrepreneurship can help them.  So those are the types of ideas we Twitter - it's a continuation of our mission in a different venue. Does it drive traffic to our site?  Yes, but only if they find the Twitter interesting and relevant enough to click on the link. 

So with your mission in mind, here are 10 ways to use Twitter to grow your social venture [and examples of folks who do it well]. The first three are focused on what your organization can learn and gain from listening, the latter seven are ways you can serve your community using Twitter.

10 Ways Social Entrepreneurs should use Mission-Aligned Twittering:
1.    Networking: find key influencers in your field to follow [http://tweepsearch.com]
2.    Knowledge: listen to keep up with latest events in your field(s) [#SocEnt, #prize4sc, ]
3.    Research: ask questions to gain insights, ideas, prioritize [@odemagazine, @McKQuarterly]
4.    Educating: highlight research, trends, and advances [@casefoundation, @knightfdn]
5.    Increasing Awareness: share accomplishments, beneficiary stories [@ashokatweets]
6.    Filtering: select the best information to retweet and save people time [@NetSquared]
7.    Events/conferences: increase reach and global participation [#swf09, @socialedge, "Twittered Conference"]
8.    Fundraising: raise small gifts, create “Epic Change” [@StaceyMonk, Tweetsgiving, Tanzania classroom, Charity:Water/Twestival, Mal Warwick]
9.    Announcements: post winners of contests, deadlines, milestones, etc. [@changemakers]
10.  Friendraising: build loyalty, make personal connections [@lend4health, "I've found that ppl I've tweeted with end up making a loan"]

Twitter Tips
•    Authenticity, transparency, and purpose are key to a good twitter presence
•    Ensure your twitterer(s) understand mission and brand personality
•    Make it personal and different from a blog, email, or RSS
•    Include links to full articles and use url shorteners with tracking
•    Use hashtags to be found and connect with others
•    Listen, respond, and retweet relevant information
•    Don’t repeat tweet
•    Add value

Twitter is the ultimate in permission marketing and viral marketing.  People can stop following you at any time, and they will only retweet what they find interesting & valuable. So your job is to ensure that Twittering is part of your operational programs, as well as part of your fundraising, communications, and marketing department(s).  The better the integration throughout your organization, the more useful your Twitters will be for your audience. Remember, it is not about you - self-serving marketing will soon lose it's followers, so keep your audience in mind and focus on the Twitters that they will find useful and entertaining.
 

An excerpt from The Wall Street Journal (page R6, April 23, 2009):

FORGE - Transparency Is Key

It isn't just the economy that's battering nonprofits. Many have been victims of recent financial scandals, and several have had to shut their doors as a result.

That has eroded trust among donors, and the only way to regain that trust is for nonprofits to be open about their finances, operations and policies. [...] Forge hasn't been caught up in the recent financial scandals, but it encountered other difficulties. [...]

In response, Forge founder Kjerstin Erickson began blogging about her mistakes and Forge's situation on socialedge.org, an online community for entrepreneurs, nonprofit professionals and philanthropists to discuss approaches and solutions to social problems. She began by telling her story and unveiling her financial records to the public, down to details including staff salaries and budgets.

Within days, bloggers, nonprofit consultants, foundations and donors caught wind of the story and began asking more questions and offering suggestions. Some readers stepped up to offer Ms. Erickson free consulting help, and a foundation followed with a $50,000 donation. Eventually, increased donations erased Forge's budget gap.

"Public confidence goes up, not down, when people quickly and honestly admit their mistakes and explain how they are going to move forward," says Mr. Stannard-Stockton, principal and director of tactical philanthropy at Ensemble Capital Management LLC of Burlingame, Calif. who picked up Forge's story on his own blog.

We just heard from the Webbies that "Global X has been selected as an Official Honoree for the Public Service and Activism category in the 13th Annual Webby Awards."

This means that the X-Interview series by Global X ranks in the Top 15 video podcasts. With thousands of entries received from over 60 countries, this is an outstanding accomplishment for the mysterious Social Edge blogger.

This also demonstrates the power of story telling, especially when these wonderful stories are told by social entrepreneurs who are changing the world, one social venture at a time.

Jeff Skoll, founder and chairman of the Skoll Foundation and Participant Media, announced today that he has hired Dr. Larry Brilliant as president of a new organization Skoll is launching to address urgent threats confronting humanity and the planet. 

Larry Brilliant will focus the new organization, the Skoll Urgent Threats Fund, on identifying and supporting innovative high-impact initiatives to combat climate change, water scarcity, pandemics, nuclear proliferation and Middle East conflict. Brilliant will also serve as senior adviser to Jeff Skoll to ensure alignment of work on these urgent threats across Skoll’s business and philanthropic activities.

Brilliant is renowned for his key role with the World Health Organization in eradicating smallpox from Asia. He was the founding executive director of Google.org, where he led the development of the innovative group’s strategy and, most recently, served as vice president of Google and chief philanthropy evangelist. 

His extensive knowledge and networks across a range of social and environmental issues will help him develop the strategy and partnerships to get the Skoll Urgent Threats Fund up and running quickly. Brilliant is familiar with Skoll’s vision for social and environmental change, having served on the Skoll Foundation board since 2007.

“Over the last few years, it has become increasingly apparent that humanity’s failure to address critical issues like climate change and nuclear proliferation aren’t just making these challenges more difficult; they’re putting life on the planet at risk,” said Jeff Skoll. “This new organization is designed to make serious headway on these issues by identifying and supporting the most innovative initiatives and solutions out there. I can’t think of anyone better prepared to shape and lead this effort than Larry Brilliant.”

The Skoll Urgent Threats Fund will be a new organization, chaired by Jeff Skoll, with a mandate to identify and support initiatives, organizations and individuals driving large-scale change on these global challenges. The initial budget for the new initiative is $100 million, with additional funds available over time. Larry Brilliant will build the new organization and develop its strategy and investment approach, leveraging the Skoll Foundation’s programmatic expertise and operating infrastructure in the process.  Sally Osberg, CEO of the Skoll Foundation, will join Brilliant and Skoll on the board of the new entity.

Social Edge friend Tori Hogan just started uploading her 10-part Web video series in which she investigates how international aid can be more innovative and effective.

Tori Hogan traveled to eight countries (Colombia, Argentina, Indonesia, Cambodia, India, Madagascar, Mozambique and South Africa) to investigate aid effectiveness, from the role of aid workers and volunteers, to the potential impact of more innovative approaches to aid through social entrepreneurship and market-based endeavors.

The first three episodes are already up on Beyond Good Intentions, and the rest will be released every Wednesday until May 27th. Episode 9 (Mozambique, May 20th) will be of special interest to the Social Edge community as it will focus on the work of Kiva. The final episode (South Africa, May 27) will focus on social entrepreneurship.

The Vodafone Americas Foundation today announced the winners of its Wireless Innovation Project, a new initiative that identifies and funds unique innovations using wireless related technology offering the best potential to address critical social issues around the world. The three winning innovations will share in prizes totaling up to $700,000 USD to support their next phase of advancement and implementation.
The Vodafone Americas Foundation Wireless Innovation Project winners are:

·        Active Networked Tags for Disaster Recovery Applications – A system that uses wireless devices to track and locate survivors trapped by fires and structural collapse. The system is based on energy harvesting tags using ultra low power communications. Developed by Professors Gil Zussman, Peter Kinget, Ioannis (John) Kymissis, Dan Rubenstein, and Xiaodong Wang of Columbia University.

·        CelloPhone – A lensfree imaging platform on a cellphone for disease detection and diagnostics using digital holograms of the cells or bacteria, that is capable of monitoring HIV, malaria, tuberculosis and various other diseases. Developed by Dr. Aydogan Ozcan, Dr. Neven Karlovac and Dr. Yvonne Bryson of the University of California at Los Angeles.

·        CellScope: Mobile Microscopy for Disease Diagnosis – A conventional cell phone is transformed into a compact, high-resolution, handheld microscope with the capability of on-site disease diagnosis and wireless transmission of patient data to clinical centers for remote diagnosis & treatment. Developed by Dr. Daniel Fletcher, Dr. Erik Douglas and Dr. Wilbur Lam of the University of California at Berkeley.

The three winners were selected from nearly 100 applicants from U.S. universities and nonprofit organizations for their multi-disciplinary approach using an innovation in wireless related technology to address a critical global issue in the areas of education, health, economic development, the environment or access to communication.

More information – including project summaries, photos and video of the Wireless Innovation Project winners here.

D.Light Design's founder and Social Edge blogger Sam Goldman is in the news again. Read Products for the other 3 billion in FORTUNE Magazine.

Teaching slum dwellers in Guatemala to sell worm byproducts as fertilizer. Helping disabled Nigerians become business owners rather than beggars. Turning weeds in India into fuel.

These are some of the noble ventures being undertaken by the 20 “social entrepreneurs” who have been selected to join the seventh annual Global Social Benefit Incubator (GSBI) at Santa Clara University.

The program, which received over 350 applications—triple last year’s total—taps Silicon Valley veteran financiers, marketers, and executives as well as Santa Clara University faculty to help promising but resource-starved entrepreneurs with key business concepts: completing a cohesive business plan, generating ideas for funding sources and investors, and finding ways to increase their impact while maintaining positive cash flow. 

The entrepreneurs get months of coaching from afar from Silicon Valley executive mentors like Tim Haley and Jeff Miller. Then, in mid-August, they come to SCU’s campus for a two-week “boot camp’’ of back-to-back classes, lectures, business-plan honing, and cross-pollination with other entrepreneurs.

Members of this year’s class are working on businesses that improve the lives and increase the economic self-reliance of their countries’ poorest residents. They are focused in four general areas: information and communication technology; economic development; environmental or alternative energy; and health and education. Among the businesses:

• Cosmos Okoli’s Mobility Aid and Appliances Research and Development Centre helps otherwise-shunned, disabled Nigerians create a community and a livelihood making and repairing wheelchairs and other mobility aids.
• Maria Rodriguez’s Byoearth helps the poor in Guatemala earn money by raising worms that produce an organic fertilizer for sale to small-scale farmers.
• Yugandhar Mandavkar’s Grass Roots Action for Social Participation utilizes “carbon credits” (fees from “polluting” companies in developed countries) to manufacture affordable, ecologically friendly wood stoves for India’s rural poor.

See all of this years winners.

We are proud that two Social Edge bloggers are among BusinessWeek's Top 25 Most Promising American Social Entrepreneurs:

- D.Light Design: Sam Goldman and Ned Tozun (San Francisco, New Delhi and Shenzhen)

- Social Venture Technology (SVT) Group: Brett Galimidi and Sara Olsen

You can vote for the business you feel holds the most promise (until April 26) --as long as it is a Social Edge blogger!
 

The Edge shares with you the Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs press release:

LONDON – A group of philanthropic organizations, including social venture funds, foundations, business assistance providers and international development firms, today announced the launch of a new economic development network that would increase investment in small and growing businesses in the developing world. Supporters of the network said poverty reduction would require expanded support for small business owners in emerging markets who are ineligible for smaller microfinance loans and are often overlooked by traditional sources of investment because their businesses are not yet big enough.

Based in Washington, D.C. at the Aspen Institute, the Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs has garnered the financial backing of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Citi Foundation, Google.org, The Lemelson Foundation, Omidyar Network, The Rockefeller Foundation, Shell Foundation and Skoll Foundation. To-date, thirty-five organizations have joined the network, which organizers said would collectively manage more than $750 million during the next five years.

"Invention and entrepreneurship drive prosperity," said Julia Novy-Hildesley, executive director of The Lemelson Foundation. "Funding start-ups and young ventures is more important now than ever before, given the current global economic and environmental crisis. There is no better way to build a middle class from the bottom-up than through small and growing businesses."

“Finding collective solutions to common barriers will be a major focus of our work in the years to come,” said Peter Reiling, executive vice president of the Aspen Institute, and a 22-year veteran in the field of business development. “We believe that by coming together, by combining efforts to support small businesses with high growth potential, we can truly move the needle in creating widespread prosperity in the developing world.”

The creation of the network marked a major step forward in addressing a well-documented disparity between investment in small and growing businesses compared to other business sectors in emerging markets. According to research conducted for the network by Dalberg Global Development Advisors, the volume of loans made in both the microfinance and small-scale private equity sectors were each six times greater than those made within the small and growing business sector.

"The developing world is currently missing out on an engine of job creation and economic growth because entrepreneurs are unable to access appropriate finance and business training,” said Chris West, director of the Shell Foundation. “Through the Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs, we have the potential to change this situation - unlocking latent, much-needed entrepreneurial potential."

The research also showed considerable momentum within the small and growing business sector, with 150 organizations - mostly foundations, development finance institutions and private investors - which have already injected up to $4 billion in capital into small and growing businesses in the developing world. Those same funders reported more capital readily available for investment. The key to expansion, these funders said, would be to support the growth of intermediary organizations that directly invest in small and growing businesses.

“Amid the turmoil of the global economic crisis, the launch of this network offers reason to be optimistic in entrepreneurial quarters of the developing world,” said Randall T. Kempner, executive director of the Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs. “In the long-term, our goal is to create the real possibility that the next Bill Gates or Richard Branson could come from a developing country.”

An expert on innovation and economic development, Kempner said in the short-term the network would focus on helping social venture funds and business assistance providers expand their ability to grow. Kempner also announced the start of a fund that would annually give $1 million (USD) in grants to increase innovation and collaboration within the network. Money to start the fund was donated by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, The Lemelson Foundation and Shell Foundation.

Kempner made the announcement this morning in Oxford during the 2009 Skoll World Forum on Social Entrepreneurship, a gathering of more than 700 leading social entrepreneurs, funders, academics and policymakers from more than 60 countries.

---

The Aspen Institute mission is twofold: to foster values-based leadership, encouraging individuals to reflect on the ideals and ideas that define a good society, and to provide a neutral and balanced venue for discussing and acting on critical issues. The Aspen Institute does this primarily in four ways: seminars, young-leader fellowships around the globe, policy programs and public conferences and events. The Institute is based in Washington, DC, Aspen, Colorado, and on the Wye River on Maryland's Eastern Shore and has an international network of partners. For more information, visit www.aspeninstitute.org.

The Engineers for Social Impact (E4SI) Fellowship Selection Committee announces today that they reviewed close to 500 internship applications and made offers to 24 candidates for 14 roles at 10 partner social enterprises that focus on development by means of sustainable for-profit entrepreneurship.
 
E4SI 2009 Fellows come from a number of India’s elite engineering schools including IIT Kanpur, IIT Kharagpur, IIT Bombay, IIT Madras and BITS Pilani – all from diverse backgrounds with excellent accomplishments and potential.

E4SI 2009 Fellows include the overall coordinator of IIT Bombay’s Mood Indigo fest and student presidents of entrepreneurship clubs at BITS Goa and IIT Madras.

With funding from the Skoll Foundation, Greg Dees and Cathy Clark have launched a three-year project at Duke to explore how social entrepreneurs’ business model choices can maximize social impact.

They are currently conducting an online survey of social entrepreneurs, for-profit and non-profit, globally. They are working on this with leading funds and membership groups in the Social Entrepreneurship space, including: Acumen Fund, Ashoka, B Lab, Columbia Business School/ RISE, Dasra, Draper Richards Foundation, Global Social Venture Competition, Great Bay Foundation, Investors’ Circle, NESsT, RSF Social Finance, SJF Ventures, the Skoll Foundation, Social Enterprise Alliance, Social Venture Network, and many others.

If you are a for-profit or non-profit social entrepreneur, they invite you to take their online survey.

If you know of others who might want to be part of this work, please forward this link to them.

Ultimately, they will be reporting on findings in the aggregate, and using the data to create a set of tools, articles, and case studies to help nonprofit and for-profit social entrepreneurs make better business model decisions based on the lessons of their peers. All survey participants may sign up to receive a summary of the findings.

Be part of this important work to improve the effectiveness of social entrepreneurship!

Our good friend Jacqueline Novogratz, CEO of the Acumen Fund (interviewed here by Global X), just published The Blue Sweater: Bridging the Gap Between Rich and Poor in an Interconnected World.

Fareed Zakaria, author of The Post-American World and editor of Newsweek International wrote that "this is a wonderful book by a remarkable woman. It's a story about doing enormous good while having some extraordinary experiences and even adventures. It touches the heart and the mind."

We may soon publish a few excerpts on Social Edge, very much like we are doing with Tom Watson's CauseWired, Bill Strickland's Make The Impossible Possible, Seth Godin's Tribes, or John Elkington's and Pamela Hartigan's The Power of Unreasonable People.

Note that for the first 5,000 copies of The Blue Sweater purchased, a $15 donation per book will be made to Acumen Fund.