In her final of four posts on the Harvard Kennedy School Center for Public Leadership blog, Pamela Hartigan outlines her reasons for taking on her new job as the director of the Skoll Centre at the Said Business School at Oxford University.   She makes a pretty compelling argument on why social entrepreneurship and social enterprise will be among the most compelling areas of business study in the coming years.  Worth a read.

A nice way to close out the year…. Luis Szaran, founder of Sonidos de la Tierra and a 2005 Skoll social entrepreneur, has been named “Leader for Culture” in the American University of Paraguay’s “Leaders of Paraguay 2008″ award program.  The program recognizes individuals showing leadership and entrepreneurial spirit across a range of sectors, including the public sector, private enterprise, sports and youth.  Luis, who conducts the Symphonic Orchestra in Asuncion, took home the highest number of votes of any candidate, reflecting the great visibility he has in Paraguay.   In a country with a relatively young history of civic engagement, when a leading figure like Luis engages in social change as he has through the Sonidos program, this sends an important signal of the value of this kind of work.  Congrats to Luis!

And Happy New Year!

There’s a great story in Time Magazine online this week on the good work that Health Care Without Harm has done to improve safety and environmental practices in the health industry.  Co-Founder and co-executive director Gary Cohen, a 2006 Skoll social entrepreneur, is quoted throughout the piece.  The article gives HCWH credit for significant advances in health practices in U.S. hospitals over the last decade, including phasing out the use of mercury in medical devices and reducing incineration of medical waste.  Nice recognition of work well done and work ongoing.

This three minute video from Jody Williams on Social Edge’s Global X site gives some good words of wisdom for the holiday season.  In it, she explains what got her started in the activism that ultimately led her to a Nobel Peace Prize for her work on land mines.  Her advice:  Don’t just whine about issues. Get up and take action to make a better world.

Happy holidays from all of us here at the Skoll Foundation.

Social Edge, the online community site of the Skoll Foundation, is again this year working with the Global Social Benefit Incubator (GSBI) at Santa Clara University to identify strong candidates for the GSBI program.  The GSBI program is aimed at entrepreneurs who “have demonstrated their commitment to applying technology to address urgent human needs throughout the world.”  You can read about how the process works, get the necessary documents, and see the timeline on this page on Social Edge.  A number of good social entrepreneurial organizations from around the world have come to the GSBI program through Social Edge.  Kiva, the leading proponent of online microlending, was one of those (and, this year, became a Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship organization).

If you have an innovative way you’re using technology to improve people’s lives, have a look at the criteria and give it a shot.

Jeremy Hockenstein, the founder of Digital Divide Data and a 2008 Skoll social entrepreneur, did an interview on CNN from CGI Asia talking about the work of his organization.  You can watch it here.   Jeremy  talks about how DDD does socially responsible outsourcing, providing low cost IT services while helping people out of poverty.   He talks about how, over the last eight years, DDD has helped create a thriving IT sector in Phnom Pehn.  He also describes how there’s been growing interest in the sustainability of the DDD model.  It’s a good  snapshot into how a social entrepreneur thinks. 

Room to Read is partnering with Ketchum, a leading global PR firm, to promote literacy around the globe.  Founded by John Wood, a 2006 Skoll social entrepreneur, Room to Read helps establish libraries and computer labs, creates local language children’s literature, builds schools, and supports education for girls.

Per the Ketchum press release:

“Room to Read was selected as Ketchum’s “nonprofit client-of-choice” following an expression of interest among Ketchum employees to put their expertise, experience, and best practices in social responsibility toward a universal cause. The partnership provides the opportunity for Ketchum offices around the world to support Room to Read’s initiatives by helping the organization further build its brand awareness and promote its successes worldwide through strategic communications consulting. Ketchum also recently launched a fundraising drive to encourage its employees to donate to Room to Read.”

This is a great opportunity for Room to Read to drive its literacy message to an ever wider audience.

There was a nice post yesterday from Stew Friedman on the Harvard Business blog about Teach for America, whose founder and CEO, Wendy Kopp, is a Skoll social entrepreneur. Teach for America will be using the Skoll funding  as part of its “Teach for All” initiative to take its model to other countries.  The Harvard post talks about how Teach for America squares a strong organizational commitment to impact - A relentess pursuit of results is one of Teach for America’s core values - with an equally strong commitment to personal and professional alignment for their employees.  In many situations, these would work at cross purposes.   But at Teach for America, it functions, per Friedman, because the people there are high-performers who believe strongly in what they’re doing.

This is something we see across the board in the social entrepreneurial organizations we work with.  It’s never just a job, it’s a commitment.

Ceres, whose president, Mindy Lubber, is a 2006 Skoll social entrepreneur, continues to aggressively push forward its goal of integrating sustainability into the capital markets.  Last week it published its first ever report ranking consumer and technology companies for their environmental practices.  Ceres commissioned the research at the request of institutional investors, primary partners for Ceres, who are seeking data around sustainability practices in leading consumer and tech firms to better inform their investment decisions.

From the Ceres press release:

“The Ceres report found that select companies in various consumer and technology sectors are responding to the risks and opportunities presented by climate change, primarily by setting greehouse gas emissions reduction targets, boosting energy efficiency efforts, expanding renewable energy purchases and integrating climate factors into product design. But the report found that many other companies are still largely ignoring climate change, especially at the board and CEO level. For example, only 11 of the 63 companies have their boards receive climate-specific updates from management, only seven of the CEOs among these firms have taken leadership roles on climate change initiatives and none of the companies have linked C-suite executive compensation directly to climate-related performance.”

IBM, Dell and Tesco get the highest marks overall, while Nike and Wal-Mart top the rankings in the apparel and retail sectors.

You can read the entire report here (PDF).

Google has launched a series of 25 “themes for causes”, giving users of iGoogle, the company’s customizable home page, the chance to show their support for their favorite charities by adopting and promoting the theme.  Room to Read, whose founder, John Wood, was a 2006 Skoll social entpreneur, is one of the 25 organizations Google has tapped.   You can see the Room to Read theme here.  Per Google, “the intent of these themes is to raise awareness as well as donations. Each theme has a “Donate” link that appears in the upper right-hand corner to make your holiday donations easier. We also encourage you to share your favorite Theme for a Cause with your family and friends.”

Skoll partners Ashoka and Alliance for Climate Protection also are included in the iGoogle “themes for causes.”