Skoll social entrepreneur Martin Burt founded Fundacion Paraguaya in 1985 as a micro-lending affiliate of ACCION International and has since built it into an extremely successful microfinance organization. Elisabeth Rhyne, Managing Director for the Center for Financial Inclusion, recently profiled Martin and the work of Fundacion Paraguaya on the HuffingtonPost. In the piece, Elisabeth writes about Martin’s most [...]

Omidyar Network today announced it has committed $5 million over three years to microlending pioneer Kiva.org, whose Co-Founder and CEO Matt Flannery, and President Premal Shah, are 2008 Skoll social entrepreneurs. During the first two years of the grant, Omidyar Network will match up to $2 million of online donations from individual Kiva lenders.
According to [...]

Congratulations to Root Capital for achieving a truly remarkable milestone this summer — it awarded its 800th loan and reached a total of $200 million in disbursements. This reflects a 44 percent annual growth rate. These loans, provided to small and growing businesses across 30 countries in Latin America and Sub-Saharan Africa, have positively impacted the lives of [...]

On June 18, YouthBuild USA, founded by Skoll social entrepreneur Dorothy Stoneman, was awarded one of two $10 million competitive national grants from the U.S. Department of Labor to prepare young adult offenders and young people without a high school diploma for employment and postsecondary education as well as to engage them in community leadership.

This grant allows [...]

The National Science Foundation has awarded a $1 million grant to Citizen Schools, led by 2005 Skoll social entrepreneur Eric Schwarz, to support its science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) apprenticeships, specifically to increase computing apprenticeships nationwide.  This prestigious grant will help Citizen Schools to significantly increase the number of students who have the opportunity to [...]

The CBS Evening News featured Room to Read on its American Spirit series on July 9, providing 2006 Skoll social entrepreneur John Wood and the organization he founded with a tremendous opportunity to reach millions of viewers. The story highlights one of Room to Read’s more recent initiatives of nurturing local literary talent in the regions where it’s [...]

The GoodWeave 2010 Rug Raffle is on! Headed by 2005 Skoll social entrepreneur Nina Smith, GoodWeave works to end child labor in the handmade rug industry in South Asia and sponsors schooling for rescued children. To learn more about GoodWeave’s work, the raffle and ways to enter to win the beautiful Japanese Floral in Saffron rug, click here. [...]

The Skoll Foundation’s funding of stories of social entrepreneurship or those relevant to social entrepreneurs, on the PBS program FRONTLINE/World, continues tonight, June 29th, with a story from Haiti regarding post-disaster food aid. FRONTLINE/World and NPR’s Planet Money reporter Adam Davidson explore the issue in “Haiti: The Aid Dilemma,” the latest in its series of economic reports from [...]

Aflatoun - a children’s savings and financial education program founded by Skoll social entreprenuer Jeroo Billimoria, recently published its annual report, Children and Change. The research and evaluation report highlights the impact of Aflatoun’s work in 2009. For example: 

The Aflatoun program was delivered to over 595,530 children in 4,353 schools and non-formal education centres.
Children were involved in [...]

Sakena Yacoobi, founder of the Afghan Institute of Learning (AIL) and a 2006 Skoll social entrepreneur, recently received the 2010 Jonathan Mann Award for Global Health and Human Rights established to honor the late Jonathan Mann, and to call attention to the vital links between health and human rights.  Despite his untimely death in a 1998 plane crash, [...]