I attended the Global Zero Summit in Paris this week, representing Larry Brilliant of the Skoll Global Threats Fund, which is a financial supporter of Ploughshares, an organization that supports peace and security worldwide.  Global Zero is pushing for the elimination of all nuclear weapons based on a multi-stage, multi-year plan that all the world’s nuclear powers would embrace.  You can reach the basic approach here.

The key theme at the Summit - which included senior current and former officials from nuclear and non-nuclear states - is that the time for action is now. There is high-level political support for disarmament - U.S. and Russian Presidents Obama and Medvedev, UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown and UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon all had statements of support read at  the Summit.  There is general consensus that nuclear weapons no longer serve to deter the threats of today’s world - terrorism by non-state actors, regional conventional arms conflicts, and the like.  And there is growing fear that proliferation will make it more likely that weapons fall into the wrong hands.  On top of this, countries around the globe are expected to push for greater use of nuclear for non-carbon energy generation in the face of climate change, so there’s real interest in putting into place processes and practices that will make sure this can happen peacefully.  Reducing or eliminating nuclear weapons will help this process.

This was not a collection of wild-eyed do gooders.  The delegates were a veritable who’s who of arms control and spanned the political spectrum.  You can see a partial list here. Former U.S. Secretary of State George Shultz delivered the initial keynote.  Queen Noor of Jordan, who’s been an active figure on this issue (check her out on the Colbert Report), talked about the launch of a public awareness campaign by Global Zero that is designed to encourage citizens around the globe to push leaders to adopt a zero-nuclear approach.  There was active participation by China, India, and Pakistan.  The Summit launched a University Network initiative, with 30 students from around the world participating as delegates and meeting to determine logistics for engaging their fellow students on the issue.  The Summit also screened “Countdown to Zero,” a film by Academy Award winning producer Lawrence Bender about eliminating nuclear weapons that debuted at Sundance the week before (transparency statement:  “Countdown to Zero” is a film by Participant Media, founded by Jeff Skoll).

One of the key challenges Global Zero faces is that people tend to consider this a high-level policy issue, “out of their control.”  But a clear message from the Summit was that there are important political decisions coming up that citizens should weigh in on with their political leaders (in the U.S., ratification of an anticipated U.S.-Russia treaty, more broadly on the global Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, and several other initiatives.)  Given that arms control has largely been off the front burner for nearly two decades, there’s a tremendous amount of education that has to take place, both for publics and for politicians.  So Global Zero is going to be doing its best to engage citizens across the world.  One thing you can do today is sign their online petition supporting the goal of zero nuclear weapons worldwide.

Some photos from the event:

Source for all photos: GlobalZero

A major national conference on the future of philanthropy on the west coast?  Yes, Jim Ferris and his team at USC’s Center on Philanthropy & Public Policy brought together leaders in the field for note comparing, networking, and strategizing on January 27^th and 28th.

The sun was shining brightly on campus, but inside the rays of hope were few and far between.  Much talk was heard of a “new normal” that has reset the sector to a far lower equilibrium than we’ve enjoyed in recent years.  Much gnashing of teeth, rending of sack cloth and the rest… of course, I’m speaking figuratively.

The sessions attracted top talent, including Sonal Shah, Director of the White House Office of Social Innovation and Civic Participation, and Diana Aviv, President and CEO of Independent Sector.  In her keynote address, Sonal conveyed a message, in essence, of “I am from the government.  I’m here to partner with you”.  Sonal’s move from Google to Washington gives her the distinction of being the highest-level “social intrapreneur” that I’ve ever known.  As a change agent within government, she recognizes the enormity of her task – and her need for allies and ideas from civil society.

Diana Aviv also found rays of light in her proclamation of a new era of collaboration born of necessity.  In contrast to pre-crisis days, when each organization had to be “unique” and “different”, the sector is now gaining a new sense of pragmatism.  Today, funders and civic organizations are recognizing that leverage, reengineering, revitalizing – and partnership – will be needed to sustain or grow the impact that we aim to achieve.

But the main cause for hope that kept popping up in a range of sessions was the possibility of renewal through social innovation.  Social entrepreneurs were cited by speakers in many sessions, including one helpful suggestion that Kiva was the “gateway drug to social investing”: once you try it you can’t quit!  The well-attended panel on social entrepreneurship gave the audience a chance to reflect on what it takes to build social innovations to scale.  Moderator Jack Knott, Dean of USC’s School of Policy, Planning and Development invited your humble raconteur and two other panelists to discuss the opportunity presented by social entrepreneurs, identify ways that philanthropy can best support scaling of their solutions, and explore how links to public policy and private capital markets could be strengthened.

In light of my philanthropic audience, I emphasized the importance of core operating support in scaling innovation.  Providing core support that is aligned with an organization’s strategy for maximizing impact – rather than project funding that can distract and distort – is probably the biggest thing a foundation can do to help build a scalable institution.  “How big would Microsoft be if Bill Gates had to create different products for each of his investors?” I asked.

Another speaker evoked the collective power – in support of innovation - that would be unleashed if foundations applied 100 percent of their balance sheets toward impact, rather than the more typical 5 percent.  A quite reasonable suggestion, against which you’ll find no argument here.

As a closing note, I encouraged foundations to approach social entrepreneurs with a healthy dose of humility.  Posing the question, “does social innovation originate with foundation officers?”, I encouraged the audience to look beyond deterministic, top-down models of social change and instead think about empowering the innovators.  Well-intentioned as we may be, we’re only investors in innovation – social entrepreneurs have the solutions.

Ceres, led by 2006 Skoll social entrepreneur Mindy Lubber, is celebrating an important move by the SEC on climate risk - a move Ceres has been fighting for for a number of years.  The SEC put out yesterday “new interpretive guidance that clarifies what publicly-traded companies need to disclose to investors in terms of climate-related ‘material’ effects on business operations, whether from new emissions management policies, the physical impacts of changing weather or business opportunities associated with the growing clean energy economy.” Per Ceres, this is the first economy-wide climate risk disclosure requirement in the world.  A major focus of Ceres’ work has been to coalesce institutional investors to bring pressure to bear on regulators to require more stringent climate risk disclosure rules.

Per Mindy, in the press release: “Today’s vote is a clarion call about the vast risks and opportunities climate change poses for US companies and the urgency for integrating them into investment decision making. The business risks of climate change cannot be ignored. With this guidance, investors can make more sound decisions based on better information – and businesses will have a level-playing field with clear standards and expectations for disclosure.”

Given the lack of progress in Copenhagen on a binding global agreement with teeth, this type of industry-driven approach to addressing climate change is likely to be where real progress is made.  Ceres has been instrumental in making the institutional investor sector one of the more progressive sectors on climate.  Congratulations to Mindy and team for this big win.

The Saïd Business School at Oxford, home of the Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship, moved up a couple of slots in the FT’s 2010 Global MBA rankings.  Its ranking at number 16 worldwide is a good showing for the still young business school.  The report includes a series of predictions for 2010 for business education.  Roger Martin, a Skoll Foundation board member and Dean of the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto, makes this wish:

“It would be wonderful if business education could shift its focus from analysis of narrowly defined problems to the creative tackling of the broad, messy problems that characterize our world – the solutions to which fuel society’s overall rate of progress.”

The creation of the Skoll Centre was certainly designed with this kind of thinking in mind.  It’s great to see the Saïd Business School gain in international stature.

The debut of To Catch A Dollar, a story about Grameen America and the first film from the Skoll-Sundance Stories of Change Partnership, has generated some good media buzz.  The Huffington Post has two columns on the film:  one here and the other here.  The press conference about the film also garnered a nice comment here.

Below are two photos:  The first is from the panel Skoll CEO Sally Osberg moderated last Saturday with (left to right) Lester Brown of the Earth Policy Institute, Muhammad Yunus of Grameen, Sally, and Geoffrey Canada of the Harlem Children’s Zone.  The second is the press conference with Sally, Yunus, Cara Mertes (far left), who heads up the documentary program at the Sundance Insitute, and Gayle Ferraro, who directed To Catch A Dollar.  Click here for one more photo, of Jeff Skoll and the Skoll social entrepreneurs attending the Sundance convening.

An on-the-ground report from Skoll CEO Sally Osberg and Sandy Herz, who oversees the Skoll Foundation’s film and broadcast partnerships:

Greetings from snowy Park City, Utah, where the Sundance Film Festival is off to an inspiring start! Despite competition from a broad array of powerful and engaging films, Saturday’s panel discussion, “Can’t Be Done!”, drew a sell-out crowd to see Nobel Peace Laureate Muhammad Yunus, educator Geoffrey Canada and environmentalist Lester Brown. Facilitated by Skoll CEO Sally Osberg, the discussion probed how each speaker found the inspiration and the perseverance to tackle problems that the experts said were impossible to solve. By the end, it was clear that solutions to intractable problems such as poverty, climate change and education are within our reach, but we are the ones who need to make change happen. The audience spontaneously rose to their feet at the end and the positive energy was palpable.

One particularly memorable moment: Geoff Canada describing his turning point when he confronted the facts of how well Harlem’s children were doing and the real difference the Rheedlen Foundation’s programs were making - yet realizing that good intentions and even hard, sincere work weren’t doing much. At that point, he knew something more–a deeper, more coordinated cradle to college set of interlocking programs –  was essential, and he began drafting the plan that would become the Harlem Children’s Zone.

Our next stop was the premiere of the first Stories of Change film project - To Catch A Dollar - which we were so pleased to have accepted in the Spotlight section of the festival. The film weaves the life and work of Muhammad Yunus with intimate portraits of women borrowers in Bangladesh and in Queens, New York, where they are the first to benefit from Grameen America’s effort to bring the Grameen micro-lending model to the US. Once again, Yunus received a standing ovation as he joined filmmaker Gayle Ferraro on stage to answer questions after the screening.  Impact Partners’ Geralyn Dreyfous hosted a beautiful post-screening celebration at the Swaner EcoCenter, raising money for the film’s outreach strategy, which includes efforts to establish a Grameen America branch in Utah serving Native Americans.

Finally, Skoll CEO Sally Osberg joined Dr. Yunus, Gayle Ferraro and the Sundance Institute’s Cara Mertes for a press conference Sunday highlighting both the film and the Skoll/Sundance partnership. Sundance board members and Senator Barbara Boxer were among those in the audience. It’s exciting to see this first film under the partnership taking flight, but we are equally excited for the remaining nine Stories of Change projects in the pipeline and the potential of these films to highlight the work of social entrepreneurs around the world.

In a gesture of kindness reminiscent of a similar act two years ago when Skoll social entrepreneur Sebastien Marot of Friends International could not find snow boots in Cambodia only to find a pair waiting for him upon his arrival, Cara Mertes and our Sundance friends came through once again–outfitting Muhammad Yunus with a Sundance Film Festival parka that will keep him toasty in Davos, where he heads next! There he will share his vision for social business–along with many examples of how to build viable ventures that couple doing good and doing well, that are not about maximizing profit but are designed to solve societal problems while generating profits sufficient to scale the business in a sustainable way.

Tomorrow, we launch the next phase of our festival experience with the arrival of social entrepreneurs Bunker Roy (Barefoot College), Quratul Ain Bakhteari (IDSP), Munqeth Mehyar (EcoPeace) and Martin von Hildebrand (Gaia Amazonas), who will spend the next four days developing their own expertise in storytelling and film through workshops, screenings, panels and roundtables with some of the smartest and most creative filmmakers in the industry. Stay tuned for more soon!

The Skoll Global Threats Fund, created by Jeff Skoll last year and led by Larry Brilliant, announced today its first grants and latest executive hire, as well as launched a new website.  The site gives a good overview of  the Skoll Global Threat Fund’s mission and its approach on the five global threats it will focus on initially:  climate change, water scarcity, pandemics, nuclear proliferation and Middle East conflict.  The Skoll Global Threat Fund’s first grants are to Ploughshares, to promote nuclear weapons elimination, and J Street, to encourage moderate voices in support of a negotiated two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.  Larry’s first executive hire is Eric Nonacs as VP, Alliances and Partnerships, who arrives with a strong background working on social change issues with, among others, the Clinton Foundation.

Arzu Studio Hope, founded by 2008 Skoll social entrepreneur Connie Duckworth, is leveraging its program to help another Skoll social entrepreneur, Paul Farmer, with his work with Partners in Health in Haiti. Arzu, which helps break the cycle of poverty in Afghanistan through its program to link Afghan rug sales in the developed world to education and development activities in Afghanistan, will donate 25 percent of each Arzu rug purchased through January to Partners of Health. It’s great to see a social entrepreneur with an income component in its program using that lever to help fund another social entrepreneur.

The Skoll Foundation will be visible as the Sundance Film Festival in a big way this year.  First and foremost, a Skoll supported film - the first under our Stories of Change partnership with the Sundance Institute - will premier at the festival. To Catch A Dollar tells the story of Muhammad Yunus, the legendary founder of Grameen Bank in Bangladesh, opening Grameen America to help tackle poverty in the U.S.  (I got to check out an advance copy of the film, and it’s a great story.)  There will also be a press conference to talk about To Catch A Dollar and the Stories of Change partnership with Mohammad Yunus, Skoll CEO Sally Osberg, and Sundance Institute director Cara Mertes, taking place on January 24.

In addition, Sally Osberg, the Foundation’s CEO, will be moderating a panel at Sundance with Muhammad Yunus and two other social change legends:  Geoffrey Canada of the Harlem Childrens’ Zone and Lester Brown of the Earth Policy Institute.  They also feature in documentary films at Sundance this year, the former in Waiting for Superman and the latter in Climate Refugees.   That should be a great discussion on how you effectively tackle seemingly overwhelming challenges like poverty, education and climate and make real forward progress.

Finally, as part of the Skoll/Sundance partnership, the two organizations will hold a convening of Skoll social entrepreneurs and filmmakers to explore ways to tell compelling stories around social entrepreneurs.  2009 Skoll social entrepreneurs Munqeth Mehyar of EcoPeace/Friends of the Earth Middle East and Martin van Hildebrand of Gaia Amazonas, 2006 Skoll social entrepreneur Quratal Ain Bakhteari of IDSP in Pakistan, and 2005 Skoll awardee Bunker Roy of Barefoot College in India will participate.

The Sundance partnership is a big component of the Skoll Foundation’s efforts to promote the success of  social entrepreneurs worldwide by telling their stories effectively.  In addition to the Yunus film, there are nine more documentaries of social entrepreneurs in the works, ranging from an architect working on solar powered floating schools in Bangladesh to Kenyans using soap opera to bridge ethnic tensions. You can read about these other films on the Stories of Change site.

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.