We put out a press release today announcing a series of investments approved by the Skoll board at its most recent meeting.  They include a new Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship, the second in our 2010 cohort, to Peace Dividend Trust.  Led by Scott Gilmore, Peace Dividend Trust  is focused on “making peace and humanitarian operations more effective, efficient and equitable so that they deliver cheaper, faster, smarter missions - resulting in a stronger peace and a larger peace dividend.”  Peace Dividend Trust does impressive work in complex environments around the globe, and recently got an important endorsement on their Afghanistan work from U.S. Ambassador Eikenberry and General McChrystal.

In addition to the Peace Dividend Trust award, we also announced new support for The Elders, the group of eminent senior statesmen pulled together by Nelson Mandela to focus more political and public attention on critical global challenges.  We’re also making a program related investment in the Middle East Venture Capital Fund (alongside the European Investment Bank and Cisco, among others) to help promote entrepreneurs in the IT sector in the Palestinian Territories.  Finally, we’re also renewing our financial commitment to the Skoll Centre at the Said Business School at Oxford University, which continues to blaze the trail for academic work around social entrepreneurship.