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Several of history's most outrageous marketing stunts are chronicled in Getting Into Guinness, a book about the cultural impact of Guinness World Records, which itself started out as a promotional gimmick. Here's a list of what are arguably the most ...

On today's Internet, algorithms rule. But a handful of startups are using large-scale human participation to offer online services that computers alone can't deliver. Can human judgment scale with the Web?

Sports blogs are among the most widely read, but most of them aren't worth reading. Here, Fast Company takes a look at the six best sports blogs written by those who actually live the sports life -- athletes, owners, managers, and front-office executives.

Rep. John D. Dingell, a Michigan Democratic and for decades a pawn of the auto industry, was ousted yesterday as chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. If you wonder how American automakers could have ended up with tin cup in hand, ...

Several of history's most outrageous marketing stunts are chronicled in Getting Into Guinness, a book about the cultural impact of Guinness World Records, which itself started out as a promotional gimmick. Here's a list of what are arguably the most ...

On today's Internet, algorithms rule. But a handful of startups are using large-scale human participation to offer online services that computers alone can't deliver. Can human judgment scale with the Web?

Sports blogs are among the most widely read, but most of them aren't worth reading. Here, Fast Company takes a look at the six best sports blogs written by those who actually live the sports life -- athletes, owners, managers, and front-office executives.

Rep. John D. Dingell, a Michigan Democratic and for decades a pawn of the auto industry, was ousted yesterday as chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. If you wonder how American automakers could have ended up with tin cup in hand, ...

Chuck Slaughter, founder of clothing company TravelSmith, has a secret he doesn’t often share: He’s an Avon lady. But he only enlisted to better research the cosmetics giant, he explains, having had a “eureka” moment. If children in developing countries are dying because their parents can’t find or afford the requisite drugs, then why not deliver low-priced drugs to their doorsteps using an Avon-style direct sales technique? In 2004 Slaughter had been hired to turn around the struggling Child and Family Wellness Shops—microfinanced franchises in Kenya that distribute affordable…

On March 13, 2006, Elizabeth A. Okoreeh-Baah did what no woman had done before: She piloted the V-22 Osprey—a flying behemoth that takes off like a helicopter and then cruises like an airplane. The Marine Corps captain and graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy joined the military for challenges like this, as well as for educational and travel opportunities. But she stays in the service in large part for the equality. “Nowhere else would I be guaranteed equal pay to my male counterparts,” says Okoreeh-Baah. “In the Marines, I know that another person with the same rank, the same position,…

Sialkot, Pakistan, is the soccer ball capital of the world. Nestled in the northeast corner of Punjab province, this district of 3.5 million people has produced some 75 percent of the world’s hand-stitched soccer balls over the past decade. Each year, Sialkot manufacturers supply millions of soccer balls to multinational companies like Nike and Adidas. But in the mid-1990s, media accounts revealed that children were stitching soccer balls in Sialkot. This news tarnished the reputations and threatened the profits of the global brands sourcing Sialkot balls. In 1997, Nike and other leading…

When dawn breaks over the 500 wooded acres of the Cistercian Abbey of Our Lady of Spring Bank in Sparta, Wisc., the five Roman Catholic monks who live here have already begun their daily rituals of chanting and chores. Their cloistered lifestyle of ora et labora—prayer and work—looks little changed from medieval times. Except for one thing: This nonprofit abbey owns a multimillion-dollar e-commerce business called LaserMonks. Annual sales of more than $4 million from ink-jet cartridges and other office supplies not only sustain the monastery, but also leave plenty to spare for charitable…

FareStart is extremely good at what it does. The nonprofit opened in 1992 to serve nutritious and culturally diverse meals to Seattle’s homeless and disadvantaged men and women. But FareStart’s founders soon recognized both their need for sustainable funding and their clients’ employment potential. And so the organization opened several businesses that not only generate revenue for the nonprofit, but also train clients for food service jobs. Every year, more than 300 clients complete FareStart’s intensive 16-week food service training program. Trainees learn their trades in…

In the last fifteen years, many African economies have begun to experience higher growth rates and increases in per capita income. High commodity prices, large-scale reduction in debt, Asian investment in the continent, and economic expansion of some of the non-oil exporting countries has helped drive this growth. However, there is still an alarming number of people living below the poverty line. Bringing financial services to this part of the population could break the poverty cycle. Sarita Gupta, Vice President, Communication of Women’s World Banking describes the current microfinance…

Ela Bhatt, former WWB Board Chair and founder of WWB network member Self-Employed Women’s Association, addressed the opening session of the United Nations High-Level Event on the Millennium Development Goals. read more

WWB president Mary Ellen Iskenderian will be a featured blogger on Skoll Foundation's website Social Edge. Launched in 2003, Social Edge is a "global online community where social entrepreneurs and other practitioners of the social benefit sector connect to network, learn, inspire and share resources." Ms. Iskenderian's blog is part of a weekly program of discussions led by experts in the field of social entrepreneurship; drawing on the experiences of the WWB network of institutions, her blog will focus on the benefits and challenges of a network approach to solving global problems.

Equity bank has been named the best Micro Finance Bank in Africa. The bank emerged the top microfinance bank of the year, beating three other entries from the continent in the category during the annual African Bankers Awards ceremony held in Washington DC, USA. read more

We are very happy to welcome Ujjivan as the newest member of the WWB network. Ujjivan is a rapidly growing microfinance organization based in the city of Bangalore, in the Indian state of Karnataka, located in the southwest region of the country. read more

Perspective on how social entrepreneurship can impact the issue of climate change.read more

Proof that you don’t need a White House pass to accomplish change comes from youthful social entrepreneurs around the country.

Ashoka Changemakers / Citi Banking on Social Change - Seeking Financial Solutions for All collaborative competition along with several Ashoka Fellows are highlighted.

2008 Geotourism Award organised by National Geographic and Ashoka Changemakers highlighted in Malaysian publication.read more

Interview with Keith Hammond regarding reiventing the news from the perspective of social change.

Thailand Fellow Natee Teerarojjanapongsread more

India Fellow Karen Groverread more

Indonesia Fellow Hasanain Juainiread more

India Fellow Sumaira Abdulali

India Fellow George Abraham

Nationalistic tendencies have hindered the world’s ability to address developing countries’ interests. A solution that fosters cooperation while supporting the principles of sustainable development is crucial, write John Elkington and Jodie Thorpe.

Dr. Gary Kendall, Preetum Shenoy, and Sophie Waskow join SustainAbility's consulting and research teams

How current pain can become investor’s gain

The social capitalist behind the phrase "triple bottom line" talks about why some greenwashing is good.

Sustainability Reports: Who Reads them, and Why?

Clare Wavamunno, an Ashoka Fellow based in Kampala (Uganda), launched Hill Preparatory School when her three-year-old daughter was diagnosed with learning disabilities.Rather than move to the UK, Clare Wavamunno decided to launch her home-grown project where children with and without disabilities would be able to learn together in the same environment.She had to find the right ratio so that all children could benefit from this new model, she had to modify the syllabus of the country and even add more to it, and more importantly, she had to overcome parents' reluctance.When several students…

David Roll, a lawyer based in Washington DC, is Managing Director of Lex Mundi Pro Bono Foundation, a network of 160 law firms (with 20,000 lawyers) offering pro bono legal services to social entrepreneurs all over the world.He remembers being contacted by Kyle Zimmer, the founder of First Book, an organization that has distributed millions of books worldwide. She needed a lawyer for a complex loan negotiation, and Lex Mundi was able to provide legal assistance.As a gift, David Roll received a crayon drawing, showing an empty book shelf on the left ("Before") and a full book shelf…

Benjamin Ogunyo, who is from Kenya, launched Koinonia to help street children get a formal education.The 2004 Ashoka Fellow realized that to help those children, he needed to solve poverty, disease and hunger. "It's better to prevent the problems in the first place," he tells Global X in this short interview.Benjamin Ogunyo tells the story of a woman who was HIV positive, had four children on the streets, was living in a single-room, and had lost hope as she thought she would soon die of AIDS or be pushed out of the house because she couldn't pay for the rent.Benjamin Ogunyo helped…

Jack Sim founded the World Toilet Organization ("the other WTO!") in 2001 when he realized that 40% of the world population had no toilets: "Sometimes they have TV, but no toilets!" He later founded the World Toilet College with Singapore Polytechnic and won the Schwab Foundation Award For Social Entrepreneurship in 2006. In this short interview with Global X, he recalls his youth in poor Singapore of the 60's and makes the unavoidable scatological jokes. He then explains why he launched the WTO. The day he turned 40, he realized that he was half-way done with his life and…

1. More traction, less projection! Premal Shah spent two years at PayPal while he was trying to get Kiva's idea off the ground. In retrospect, he thinks that doing "less PowerPoint, less MS Excel" is best. "Showing traction is a lot better than showing projections (even if the traction is a fraction of what the projections are)." 2. Go public, keep a blog! Premal Shah thinks that you should start a blog the minute you launch your social venture to show how things are progressing month-over-month. His recommendation: "Make the process transparent online as soon as you…

This is so interesting, I had to post itIf you are serious, you can become somebody! . Zack Turner, our newest Kiva staff member and friend, filmed this prior to the election out in Kenya. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j8vf-yKwEAU  

I'm still in Japan, this time on a bus passing by Yokohama right now.  Headed home today. I spent a large portion of this autumn in Asia.  It helped me step out a bit from my situation and  get some perspective.  From over here, my life and my country look fractured, but full of promise.  Last night I was invited by a Tokyo entrepreneur friend to a small Kiva hang out.  His bar has become kind of a cult locale for American entrepreneurs doing business in Tokyo.  There are famous folks signatures all over the door, a couple DJ's spinning records and video on…

I had a surreal nite in Tokyo last nite, thanks to Joi Ito and the people at Digital Garage here in Japan. These pictures really need no explanation...        For some context, check out Joi's photo-stream

I spent yesterday at the Russian Market with Sanjaya, Mark, John, Teresa, Brooke and Zvi. It's a mad, frenetic place full of textiles, gucci bags, furniture and fake software. At the end of the labrynth are the tailors. An enticing proposition for foreigners is the prospect of getting clothes made custom. I couldn't resist. For a hundred bucks, I got a suit and two shirts made to match every inch of my amazing body. I spent today on an island right outside of Phnom Penh. Mark and the staff of Maxima Microfinance took us to see three Maxima-Kiva borrowers. It's an island famous for its…

MFIs around the globe are being asked to provide "more than credit" to their clients.  Funders and industry skeptics, more than ever, question the value in just providing banking services to the poor.  I'm not writing here to weigh in on the veracity of that critique.  However, today I got some insight into the difficulty MFIs face in mixing mentoring with credit.  I sat down with the General Manager of an amazing MFI here in Phnom Penh.  I posed the question in the form of a challenge.  "Do you provide mentoring to the poor, or *just* banking…

Today we are thrilled to share with you a brand new video that highlights KIVA and PLAYPUMPS, as well as many of the case studies from this blog.   Video: "The Tactics of Hope - Join the Social Entrepreneur Movement" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MokRURNnSC0    Please join us and send this video to your friends, family, colleagues, and anyone you know who is looking for ways to make a real and lasting difference in the world. If you'd like to learn more about this exciting movement, see this exciting news update here:     San Francisco - November 10, 2008 .

Susan Sarandon (above, right) was recently on CNN honoring Rose Mapendo (above, left) a genocide survivor who became a hero working with Mapendo International to rescue thousands in Africa. Rose is the inspiration for the organization Mapendo International, founded by Sasha Chanoff in the United States and his partner Dr. Wagacha Burton in Kenya.To date, Mapendo International has helped more than 2,000 refugees into the U.S. Resettlement Program and provided medical care to an additional 3,000 through the organization's health clinic in Kenya.The following comes from The Tactics of Hope. For…

To read more case studies like this, visit us at www.TacticsofHope.org/resources The PlayPump® water system is an ingenuous, simple, low-tech solution for developing countries, which lose thousands of lives every day from lack of clean water.  Roundabout Outdoor, and its non-profit partner, PlayPumps International (www.Playpumps.org), has adapted a water pump technology that doubles as a merry-go-round.  Children play and turn the merry-go-round, pumping water from deep in the ground to a storage container that can be used for billboard advertising to generate revenue.  The…

Wilford and his wife Carole hosted Ann Cotton on their houseboat in Sausalito for a “friend-raiser”for the organization Ann founded 15 years ago, and it was my deep honor to meet this radiant woman I had studied and been researching in awe since I wrote a paper on social entrepreneurship two years ago at Middlebury College. Ann’s daughter Helen and David Ebert, the son of the first chair of CAMFED (the Campaign for Female Education), had just produced an incredible documentary film called Where the Water Meets the Sky in which Helen and David put cameras in the hands of…

John Wood, former Microsoft executive and founder of Room to Read (www.RoomtoRead.org), made a promise to a school headmaster while he was backpacking in rural Nepal. He returned a year later with 3,000 books to fill the school’s empty library. In his memoir, Leaving Microsoft to Change the World, John explains, “Did it really matter how many copies of Windows we sold in Taiwan this month when there were millions of children without access to books?” Founding Room to Read, John Wood wove corporate business practices with his inspiring vision to provide educational access to…

There's renewed optimism in the country after the elections, and we at Materials Matter are sharing in that optimism. We finally signed a new lease and have opened our doors again. Yeah!!! In early September, after four years of operating our Home Improvement Outlet -- the retail end of our operation – out of Corona, California, we very suddenly had to pack up and seek new digs due to events entirely out of our control. As a result, these past three months have been rough for us. But we remain determined to continue our mission: to help provide housing for those who need it and keep as much…

As the United States economy started its steep downward spiral three weeks ago, we at Materials Matter were experiencing our own little economic collapse. After four years of operating our warehouse in Corona, California, where we ran our Home Improvement Outlet -- the retail end of our operation -- as well as our donation distribution center, we very suddenly had to pack up and seek new digs. We found ourselves caught in the middle of a bitter dispute between to two owners of the property. And the situation very quickly evolved into a crisis for all of us. Materials Matter -- a nonprofit…

Daniel Gross, business columnist for Newsweek and Slate, turned his eyes towards the latest victim of the economic downturn in his most recent column, cheerfully titled “The Coming Charity Crisis.” His tone is appropriate. Thanks to the sluggish market, fundraisers from splashy celebrity galas to Salvation Army clothing collection bins and the charities they support are all feeling the pinch of declining donations. And while large impressive multi-million dollar gifts usually get most of the press, Gross points out that mega-gifts make up only 1.3% of all donations. The bread and butter…

In times of constantly streaming bad news -- a stalling economy, gas prices inching ever-closer to $5/gallon, donations slumping -- we all need a little good news to cling to. For those of us at Materials Matter and no doubt other social enterprises, we are driven by success stories. It’s the success stories that we work for, because each one is a building block in our larger mission. The fact that each success is the culmination of months, sometimes years of plodding work, makes them that much more satisfying. When our Board of Directors voted in early 2007 to expand our services to…

I just spent $69.78 to fill up my car. YIKES!!! What in the world is going on? I also just heard stamps are going up.again! Oh, and I keep hearing about new taxes for this and new taxes for that. I've heard about so many different new taxes lately that I don't even remember what they are for. I just know that I was going to be paying them. Well, this is not only a nonprofit's nightmare. It's obviously a nightmare for every hard-working person whose income just can't keep up with inflation. Oh, and all those people who have been laid off. Our business is based on picking up and distributing…

Santo Domingo Plaza in Mexico City is home to scribes losing business to modern gadgetry Photo: Robert Brands (flickr)Can you remember a world before email or mobile phones? Well, the scribes in Mexico City can, because that was the world they were able to make a living in. Scribes in Mexico were approached by plumbers, construction workers and the lovelorn to write receipts, fill out tax forms and even transcribe love letters. Mexico’s literacy rate has improved over the years and is now 91 percent. Even the illiterate have cell phones, so according to the scribes in Mexico City, the era…

Photo: adman_as (flickr)How can you help the world's neediest people when you don't even know they exist? Take Rio de Janiero's sprawling slum settlements, known as favelas. They contain maybe one-third of the city's population, but no one really knows for certain, and the official counts are probably too low. When you consider similar situations worldwide, there are perhaps more than a billion people whose governments have no official record of their existence, says Melanie Edwards. Her company, Mobile Metrix, hires and trains local teenagers — in Brazil and other developing countries…

Eastern EU migrants are boosting economies in western member states. Photo: TPCOM (flickr)Since the EU has admitted a dozen Eastern European nations over the past four years, many western European members have fretted that heavy migration of East European workers would cost local workers their jobs. But a report by the European Union has concluded otherwise. It says migration from Eastern European nations has “contributed significantly to overall economic growth and employment” in the EU. Migrants traveling from their homeland to more prosperous member states are actually helping labor…

New York Times columnist David Brooks identified another casualty of the U.S. recession: the new social group Brooks calls "the formerly middle class." These are people who achieved middle-class status at the tail end of the long boom, and then lost it. To them, the gap between where they are and where they used to be will seem wide and daunting. Now faced with recession, Brooks writes that members of "the formerly middle class" will need to adjust and start embracing the simpler life. That means no morning latte, no Hawaiian vacation and certainly no more Tiffany jewelry or Coach handbags.

IN THE NEWS:  HIP CEO’S CLEANTECH MEMO TO PRESIDENT-ELECT BARACK OBAMA BusinessGreen.com, November 7, 2008 issue What should U.S. President-elect Barack Obama do about clean technology, renewable energy and the environment? Danny Bradbury, of online cleantech publisher BusinessGreen.com: “We tracked down several of the leading players in the US cleantech and environmental movement to find out what they want to see from an Obama administration and what they expect to get.  From signing Kyoto to awarding Presidential Medals of Freedom for clean tech heroes, here are their…

AFFORDABLE HEALTH CARE AND 2009 OUTLOOK FOR CHANGE RSVP: http://nov08webinar.eventbrite.com/ * How will the Obama Administration address health care reform? * What companies are likely to prosper from a new approach to health care?  * How can your portfolio of health firms realize Human Impact as well as Profit? Join HIP Investor’s rapidly growing Investor Roundtable Series online for Health Care 2009 and find out The event will feature HIP Investor CEO Paul Herman and our analysis of health care companies in the HIP 100 INDEX (TM) and the S&P100 EVENT DETAILS…

HIP CEO R. Paul Herman to Keynote EcoTuesday The Sustainable Business Leaders Networking Forum RSVP: http://ecotuesday-november18-sf.eventbrite.com/ Date:   Tuesday, November 18, 2008 Time:  6:30 pm - 9:00 pm City:    San Francisco Fee:     $10 per person online$20 at the door Location:   Sir Francis Drake Hotel, 450 Powell @ Sutter (near Union Square), San Francisco, CA 94102 MUNI/BART: Powell Street 630p-700p: Networking 700p-730p: Keynote, R. Paul Herman of HIP Investor 730p-800p: Self-introductions of the audience 800p-900p: Super-networking (now that you know everyone!) …

HIP Investor Inc, the creator of the HIP Scorecard™ in 2006, has applied its unique methodology to launch two new indices for investors seeking sustainable, profitable growth: * HIP 100 Index™, designed to weight the HIP fundamentals (Human Impact + Profit) of the S&P 100 companies. * HIP 30 Index™, designed to highlight the top 30 companies of the HIP 100. As compared to the S&P 100 and Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) respectively, the HIP indices seek to highlight how investors can make more money by doing good – and how Human Impact drives Profit, the core theme of…

Index Value Close YTD HIP 100  898 +1.1% -33.7% S&P 100  417 +1.4% -37.8% HIP 30 9,093 +1.3% -29.4% DJIA 8,425 +1.8% -35.7%    As of: 11/18/08 close. Track the daily and annual returns of the HIP 100 and HIP 30, relative to their benchmarks. Percentages include reinvested dividends and stock splits. HIP indices are available for licensing to investors, advisors and funds. Learn more about the HIP Index >ShareThis

Will Anderson was studying for an MA in energy and sustainable design when he began his ambitious self-build, zero-carbon home in Clapham, south London, in 2004. It was completed in 2006 and is a prime example of best practice in green building. His Diary of an Eco-builder catalogues the whole building process and the architecturally stunning final result: September 30, 2004: Will Anderson found his plot of land in Clapham, south London, in an estate agents. It had planning permission for a house he didn't want to build November 10, 2004: After the site is cleared for construction and…

With new technological innovations for humanitarian aid – like the solar powered ambulances in Mumbai, or SMS technologies spreading aid and awareness – it can be easy to lose sight of more basic initiatives to address the most basic human needs. An international conference on Ecological Safety, held earlier this month in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, called attention to a dangerous sanitation issue by offering an inspiring and feasible solution. The problem: international donors are still promoting pit latrines, says Dr. Claudia Wendland of Women in Europe for a Common Future (WECF), but most…

This week we're excited to launch the newest installment of our series Seattle to the World: 100 Best Innovations from the Emerald City. We've taken suggestions from readers, and searched on our own, to identify the most game-changing innovations from Seattle's arts community. Seattle to the World: The Arts Artists play a crucial role in the development of cities. In order to preserve their influence on the areas that are most special to our city and our unique Seattle culture, we must value the artists and the art that makes such magic happen. Youngstown Cultural Arts Center: A Resource By…

This morning in Amsterdam the media is reporting a financial "meltdown," with stocks back to the level they were before the Dot.com Boom and international credit markets "seizing." Question: what are the implications of this meltdown for sustainability and social innovation? What are the implications in terms of pursuing sustainability and social innovation? What new approaches are now possible? What new approaches are now necessary? What kinds of unexpected innovations and solutions may we see emerge? Also, what are the implications for those trying to advance sustainability and social…

Every week, we're amazed by the number of smart contests, campaigns and other initiatives that organizations around the world bring to our attention. These roundup posts are a way for us to shout out the best of what's crossed our desks. -- The WC Editorial Team FT Climate Change Challenge The Financial Times and Forum for the Future have teamed up to search the globe for the most innovative new solution to the effects of climate change. That standout innovation could be a new technology, system or service, novel organization or business model. One winner will receive a $75,000 prize to help…

Our Bookshare.org team is delighted that we've just added I Am Potential, by Patrick Henry Hughes to the Bookshare.org collection. Patrick's story is getting a lot of deserved attention nationally as a significantly disabled college student who hasn't let disabilities stop him from pursuing his dreams.What is even cooler is that Perseus Books, Patrick's publisher, reached out to us during the production process to make sure that the book was available to people with print disabilities. Even coolerer (I know that's not a word, but this is a blog so it's ok), is that Bookshare.org is plugged on…

I went to Dubai for the first ever Summit on the Global Agenda. The Summit pulled together experts on roughly seventy different topics to discuss the current and future state of major issue areas: areas as varied as water, mining, nanotechnology, governance, economic development, economic meltdown (kidding) and so on.Obviously, there was a lot of buzz about the financial meltdown, especially in a place like Dubai that has built itself up as a major international business center (Dubai as an emirate has relatively little oil compared to some of the other gulf emirates). I spent the day before…

My current business trip started by heading for Dubai, United Arab Emirates. I had been invited to attend the Global Agenda Council meeting organized by the World Economic Forum. It was easier to say yes than usual: I'd never been to Dubai or the region, and the government of Dubai and Emirates airline offered to fly me there business class!I was stunned when I found out in New York that the plane I was boarding was the new Airbus A380, the massive, double-decker airliner. The entire second floor is first and business class, and the first class (which I didn't get to see) is famous for having…

We've just started up a new publication, The Bookshare Bulletin. It's amazing to me how much our team has gotten done over the last year! There are easily a dozen articles in this first issue about our new website, international work and many more. I'm quite excited about a new initiative which is the last article in the newsletter. We've now made it easy to report quality issues with Bookshare books, and we have a new wiki-style webpage where all of the reports are posted and updated as the issues are resolved. It's part of our campaign to upgrade the quality of all of our Bookshare content,…

This is a guest blog from Anna Reid, an Amherst student who interned with Bookshare.org International this past summer. I received a copy of her reflections and asked if I could share it with more people. Thanks to Anna for saying yes, and for sharing her experiences!Reflections on an internship with Bookshare.org in Chennai, India Made possible through support from the Amherst College Center for Community EngagementAnna Reid, religion major, class of 2010 Anna Reid with employees of Worth Trust, a South Indian organization that provides vocational training and employment for people with…

Over ten years ago, I saw a need among nonprofit and public agency staff for a book that would lead them through the process of developing a social marketing program. So often, health, social and environmental organizations decide they want to apply social marketing to the work that they are doing, but do not have the budget to hire a consultant or marketing firm and still have enough left to carry out the project. I decided to fill that gap in the field, and turned in the first draft of the chapters to the publisher in March 1998, just before my first child was born (it was like giving birth…

I've been watching with interest the evolution of Social Actions, a relatively new service that helps you find things you can do right now for the causes you care about. The site aggregates "actionable opportunities" from 30 different social action-oriented sites like Change.org, Idealist.org, Kiva, DonorsChoose.org and others. With the proliferation of so many cause-related social networking sites, it's helpful to see everything in one place. The Social Actions Labs folks have also been putting together various web applications that help to spread the information farther, such as a widget to…

Knowledge is power. But a little knowledge can be a dangerous thing. I'm trying to reconcile these two ideas to decide whether learning my personal genetic code would do more good than harm.I read today about Google founder Sergei Brin's discovery that he carries a genetic mutation that greatly increases his chances of developing Parkinson's Disease. Brin's wife, Anne Wojcicki, is the co-founder of a company, 23andMe, which offers personal genetic testing. For just $399 (which makes it well within reach for many people), the company will analyze a saliva sample to provide an in-depth report…

Please join me today (September 16th, 9 am - 7 pm EDT) in a CDC-sponsored Web Dialogue on New Media in Health Marketing. I will be a panelist, along with:Ann Aikin, Health Communications, CDC/NCHM/DeHMJennie Anderson, MS, AIDS.gov and John Snow Inc.Miguel Gomez, Director, AIDS.gov, OSFard Johnmar, M.A., Envision Solutions, LLCR. Craig Lefebvre, PhD, Adjunct Professor, School of Public Health and Health Services, George Washington UniversityWe'll be asking questions, offering ideas and answers in response to your questions and thoughts, and discussing issues related to blogs, social networks,…

As promised, here is the guest post from CK following up on the proceedings from the ServiceNation Summit: Having just come off of ServiceNation's Summit I'm aflutter with thoughts. It's not every day that I attend an event with 500+ leaders of non-profit, NGO and social change organizations. And it's certainly not every day that I get to be at an event with such notables as Barack Obama, John McCain, Hillary Clinton, Jon Bon Jovi, Usher, the CEOs of AARP, Habitat for Humanity and the list goes on. And on. The event left me humbled and heartened; I guess the best way to put it is that the…

Are you an aspiring social entrepreneur who needs some support getting your idea of the ground? Echoing Green awards 20 fellowships for social entrepreneurs each year. Fellows receive up to $90,000 in seed funding and technical support to turn their innovative ideas into sustainable social change organizations.If you're interested, you better get cracking 'cause the deadline to apply is December 1st 5 PM EST!You kind find more information about the Echoing Green Fellowship at: www.echoinggreen.org/fellowshipDuring the most recent episode of Echoing Green's Be Bold Podcast (which I host) Lara…

Will you be traveling during the holiday season? Why not pick up a copy of the November/December issue of Utne Reader for some inspiration on the plane? Its feature story is "50 Visionaries Who Are Changing Your World."There are too many visionaries in the article for me to list them all here, but here's a sampling, with links to their blogs:Political digital artist and print maker, Favianna Rodriguez.Favianna's blog, Art & Activism.Founder of Sustainable South Bronx, Majora Carter.Sustainable South Bronx's blog, Green the Ghetto.Queer activist, Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore.Mattilda's…

Last week I posted about becoming a virtual volunteer (a volunteer whose work happens online), but what if you're a nonprofit that wants to start a virtual volunteer program?Here are a few resources to get you going:The Virtual Volunteering Guidebook: How to Apply the Principles of Real-World Volunteer Management to Online Serviceby Susan J. Ellis and Jayne Cravens.Susan Ellis of Energize, Inc.'s list of articles, e-books and websites about Using the Internet and Virtual Volunteering.Jayne Cravens' of Coyote Communications' articles about online and virtual volunteering."Ask the Expert: Jayne…

I started watching a lot of CNN before the election. It's kinda depressing, but I'm trying to stay informed. Over the past week though, there have been little glimpses of happiness amid the disasters, scandals and economic bad news - stories about the CNN Heroes: Ordinary People Extraordinary Impact.According the CNN Heroes site, they received nearly 4,000 submissions from 75 countries that were narrowed down to 10 candidates by a Blue Ribbon Panel. The Panel included luminaries like Queen Rania Al Abdullah, Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu, Jeffrey Sachs and Jane Goodall.You can vote for who…

For the past couple months, I've been working with the Social Actions team on their site redesign, which launched today!Social Actions is a nonprofit initiative that helps you find and share opportunities to change the world.They collect ways for you to get involved in the causes you care about from 30+ action sources like Care2, Change.org, DonorsChoose.org, DemocracyinAction, GlobalGiving, Idealist, Kiva, SixDegrees and VolunteerMatch.You can find an action to take about the causes you care about by using their search engine, and share ways for others to take action on your website, blog,…

Back in April I posted news about the World Challenge competition, hosted by BBC and Newsweek. Well, I just got an e-mail from a friend reminding me about it so I went to the competition's website, only to find out that the final round is on and that votes for one of the finalists will be accepted until tomorrow. So I encourage you to visit World Challenge, take a look at the twelve finalists and cast your vote! There are interesting projects coming from Latin America, Africa, East Europe and Asia. Finally, a hat tip for the BBC/ Newsweek crew for the remarkable job they have done…

Guest blogger Christi Huizenga is a second-year MBA student at Thunderbird School of Global Management.  Before Thunderbird, she spent five years in project management and business development for International Justice Mission, a human rights NGO.  Christi has a B.A. in Business Communications from Calvin College in Grand Rapids, MI.Christi Huizenga The days when development finance organizations were the only ones pouring capital into emerging markets are long gone. Private Equity firms are increasingly chasing returns into emerging markets.  A panel last weekend at the Net Impact North…

(Editor's note: Today, November 19, is World Toilet Day, part of an awareness campaign led by Water Aid. This post is timely to stop for a second, think about and learn more a crisis that keeps 2.5 billion of the world's poorest citizens away from basic sanitation services)Guest blogger Mike Pezone is a returned Peace Corps volunteer from the Philippines and a 2nd year MBA from The Johnson School at Cornell University.  He focuses on Base of the Pyramid business models at Cornell's Center for Sustainable Global Enterprise.  This past summer he worked in Mexico…

Guest blogger Matt Austin is a second-year MBA student at Thunderbird School of Global Management focusing on the intersection of international development, entrepreneurship and venture capital. He spent this past summer advising a group of Endeavor High Impact Entrepreneurs in Turkey on their capital raising and expansion efforts.Prior to Thunderbird, Matt was a private equity and M&A attorney for nearly seven years. He is a graduate of Harvard Law School and the University of Iowa with a degree in Economics.By Matt AustinThe buzz surrounding social enterprise in international…

Guest blogger Kelly McCarthy is a Communications Manager and Research Analyst for the New Ventures Project at the World Resources Institute. Her current work focuses on developing impact metrics for the enterprise development community.By Kelly McCarthyThere was a lot of buzz about "impact" last weekend at the  Net Impact Conference. However, this year it wasn't just talk about creating impact, but most importantly how we consider, measure and prove it.  Perhaps the word was being used too liberally lately thus loosing a bit of its meaning.  However, as I listened to many…

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On October 23, 2008 Ritu Sharma's, Women Thrive's President and Co-Founder, op/ed on how women around the world are being...

Read the Africa Progress Panel's (APP) new fortnightly Bulletin. It is intended to provide Panel members, their staff and key stakeholders with a snapshot of the issues and events of central concern to the APP.

In his article this week, BBC journalist Martin Plaut, asks the question: Can Africa gain in the credit crisis? Banks are far less exposed than their Western counterparts, but depressed international demand is likely to impact on economic growth, according to the IMF.But fundamentally, as Plaut argues, better economic policies and democratisation mean that, "once the dust settles from the current credit crisis, the prospects for African growth look distinctly promising".

Kofi Annan announces today the former President of Botswana as the winner of the Ibrahim Prize for Achievement in African Leadership.Festus Gontebanye Mogae, the former President of Botswana, has been announced today as the winner of the 2008 Ibrahim Prize for Achievement in African Leadership. Established to recognise and celebrate excellence in African leadership, the Ibrahim Prize is the largest annually awarded prize in the world, consisting of US$5 million over 10 years and US$200,000 annually for life thereafter. The Foundation will consider granting a further $200,000 per year for ten…

The World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Report, released on the 8th October adds to the picture of an improving climate for business in Africa.In sub-Saharan Africa, South Africa (45), Botswana (56) and Mauritius (57) feature in the top half of the rankings, with several countries from the region measurably improving their competitiveness. Côte d’Ivoire (110), Ghana (102) and Malawi (119) join this year’s ranking for the first time. The United States tops the rankings, followed by Switzerland, Denmark, Sweden and Singapore. The survey is designed to capture a broad range of…

To coincide with this week’s UN High Level Meeting on Africa’s Development Needs, the UN Office for Partnerships and Business Action for Africa joined forces to organise a meeting to gauge progress on improving Africa’s investment climate.A favourable investment climate is vital for economic development and African policy-makers recognise that obstacles to both domestic and international investment are seriously impeding Africa’s development.This event, chaired by Bert Koenders, Minister for Development Cooperation of the Netherlands, served as an opportunity for heads of African…

Franco Sacchi at TED leads us through the Nigerian film industry with his documentary "This is Nollywood": <!--cut and paste-->

Food and Beverage Reporter profiles the Karoo Fish Farm initiative:The project is designed to make use of both the female labour force and the existing water sources. These are currently under-utilised and provide opportunity to develop a new economic activity and income stream.Fish will be produced in captivity, at high densities, in re-circulating aquaculture systems located in greenhouse

Copperbelt Energy Corporation (CEC) is a privately owned company that operates and maintains a network comprising transmission, distribution and generation assets and a control centre on the copperbelt.CEC’s transmission and distribution network consists of 835.7 kilometres of overhead lines and 37 high voltage substations. The current carrying capacity of the network is in excess 700MW.-company

"Acting local thinking globally. We believe that the medium of animation lends itself well to unlocking fresh and uniquely African creativity, allowing African stories to be told in a manner that appeals to a global audiences but is nuanced by the experiences of the continent." from the website of the animation house, Anamazing.

Hash highlights GNUveau networks a "No Connectivity, No Phone, No Electricity Internet hub system".See related overview video below: GNUveau Networks builds solar-powered computer networks for remote villages from roblimo on Vimeo.

 Since announcing our budget shortfall, we've received $15,000 in new gifts (toward the $100,000 deficit).  We've also received several pledges and committments that we are waiting to see formally materialize.  Its been a good start. In an exciting turn of events, a family foundation has come forward to offer $10,000 once we have raised $20,000 from our past donor base.  So far, we've raised over $7000 of the required $20,000, and we are confident that we will raise the rest.  Once this happens, we will be at least 40% of the way to…

This entry is from Curtis Chang, CEO of Consulting Within Reach (CWR). CWR has recently agreed to provide pro bono services to FORGE. As part of this experiment in radical transparency, Social Edge and Kjerstin have invited Curtis to regularly share about the experience in this context. Social Return on Investment  There are so many different ways to look at whether a nonprofit is a worthwhile investment for donors. A hot metric being tossed around in the nonprofit world is Social Return on Investment (SROI). SROI is an attempt to quantify the social impact per dollar…

If you saw Curtis’ last post, you’ll see that he took me to task for focusing too much on FORGE’s long-term vision rather than on our more immediate deliverables.   And I think he's right - we need to improve how we talk about the value we provide. The question of messaging is one we’ve always struggled with. We want to communicate both our immediate impact and the leverage that the impact can have in the future. We want you to know that your $10 gift can place 10 books in a library, but we also want you to know that a library in a refugee camp…

This entry is from Curtis Chang, CEO of Consulting Within Reach (CWR). CWR has recently agreed to provide pro bono services to FORGE. As part of this experiment in radical transparency, Social Edge and Kjerstin have invited Curtis to regularly share about the experience in this context.Grading Kjerstin's answers You have to hand it to my client. I challenged her to make her case for why FORGE should matter to the collective nonprofit sector. And she responds by throwing down a regression analysis. She’s making me feel like I've time warped back 15…

So – I’ve been asked to answer the question of why FORGE’s continued existence should matter to the world.  As I wrote about below, I think this question is essential – it both excites and frightens me.Now, I could go two ways with this: I could give you the pull-at-your-heartstrings stories about the people’s lives we touch and where they’d be without us, or I could give you the intellectual break-down of why what FORGE does is so important, groundbreaking, and yes, indispensable.I’ve decided to go with what does it for me – the…

Hugh runs his own show at Scoraig Wind Electric.  He's been building small wind turbines for 30 years and has a tremendous wealth of knowledge and experience with small wind turbines, a notoriously finicky species.  Wind power is tricky - no amount of slick marketing from the world's leading small wind turbine producers can change this.  People are looking for simple, plug-and-play solutions and the marketing folks are more then happy to play on this desire by advertising small "no maintenance", "install on your roof" wind turbine solutions that can "free you from grid power".  But the…

I am back down in Nicaragua for the second time in two months.  The organization is coming into its own through an intensive process of human resource needs evaluation, restructuring and development of both soft and hard infrastructure.  Lining up all existing resources in a defined strategic direction is challenging to say the least – but the effort is already showing payoffs.  Members of our now large team of 30 on the ground in Nicaragua are operating in more clearly defined roles and with a clearer vision of blueEnergy’s mission.  Not to say it’s all worked out, far from it, but…

Business wisdom tells us to focus – do one thing and do it extremely well.  But this rests on the assumption that one is surrounded by a well-oiled business environment, where you can focus on your widget and integrate it into the already existing logisitcs, financial, human resource, and physical infrastructure landscape.  However, in barren landscapes, where there are few if any partners available, one doesn’t have the luxury of merely focusing on one thing.  Rather, one has to develop a holistic solution, an eco-system if you will, that is able to create sustainable solutions. …

The creators of the GSBI are true visionaries that have put a structure to their vision.  It is a maturing structure with growing pains, but that makes it that much more credible in my eyes and I suspect, the eyes of the other social entrepreneurs attending. Jim Koch, co-founder of the GSBI program, laid out his case in the welcome BBQ when he said, (paraphrasing), "The challenges faced by the world are growing at a faster rate than our innovate solutions are growing to resolve them."  With this he laid out his case for the need to scale our social ventures.  While there is much discussion…

I was fortunate to be given a scholarship to attend Santa Clara University's Global Social Benefit Incubator program (GSBI). Every participant is tackling a major social issue such as clean water delivery, health care, education, and energy services.  It's an intensive, two-week business training program that takes 20 social entrepreneurs from around the world and helps then scale up their vision. Everyone comes in with passion and the GSBI helps them refine their vision and develop a strategic plan to achieve their objective given real world constraints. Joining me in the class of 2008 are…

For Diwali, Team India got two new employees!  Two weeks ago we welcomed Robin and Parmita to the Product Development team.  Robin is our new Head of Product Development, and joins us from the UK after years as a freelance product development consultant in early stage FMCG companies.  Outside of PD his claim to fame is being half of an internationally competitive foosball team – “Random” Robin and his partner were the scourge of the foosball table, making competitors weep with pain…and laughter.  Parmita is taking a year hiatus from her Masters in…

I love waking up in the morning and having truly no idea what the day will bring, but sensing it will be new and exciting.  That was today – my first day at d.light and third day in India.  After two years of working in the US as a management consultant, I’m thrilled to have jumped into the sometimes chaotic world of a social start-up in India.  We’re redefining lives at the base of the pyramid…and my notions of business terminology.     “Go to work”: Normally an act that doesn’t elicit much emotional response.  But…

  When I arrived at business school in 2005, I didn't have a lot of business clothes. I had just spent 4 years in the Peace Corps living in a village in Benin, West Africa. Which was, to put it mildly, hot. And before that, I went to college in British Columbia, Canada, spending way more time riding mountain bikes and studying biology than attending networking events or corporate job interviews.   But at some point, probably when I was an undergrad, my mom bought me a pair of black, pleated khaki dress pants - probably from JC Penney. Somehow these pants persisted as one of my…

After traveling to West Africa in 2007, Nikhil Arora learned the critical role that light plays in quality of life. As a result, the Lighting the Way project was born. Their project aims to provide solar powered LED lanterns to rural, war-torn areas of Sierra Leone.  By introducing a model to distribute sustainable solar powered lights, the project hopes to bring light to hundreds of thousands of families in Seirra Leone. They also hope to scale to other under served regions of the world. We here at d.light applaud what the Lighting the Way project is trying to accomplish and we are…

We've been busy.  We are still hiring like mad.  We have a few new designers coming on board in October and are in the midst of interviewing for more product designers, electrical engineers, and perhaps a mad scientist if you are out there!  We also need a marketing guru to lead innovative promotional campaigns, and a strong head of business development to manage partner networks. Aghh but i digress - I want to give a quick update on our business. Products:  They are out in the world and being sold.  We also have a few new products in the kitty and we'll debut them…

It's a year since they debuted and I have yet to see one of the OLPC XO laptops for myself. I was out of the office when a coworker brought one in to the office. A fellow traveler had one with him when I was on vacation last Christmas, but it never made its way out into the open. At a conference I glanced into my available wi-fi networks and saw OLPC Mesh as an available option. I feel like a photographer in search of a snow leopard. I know it's out there, the evidence is plain as can be, but I have yet to see it. Like many people, I have a hard time believing in soething until I've been able…

In case you are wondering about the importance of stopping the traffic of e-waste from the first to third world, this video from 60 Minutes should clear up any doubt in your mind. The most insidious thing about this video, to me, is that it shows someone who is making a living off of rightly vilifying the very activity that he and his company are perpetuating.I don't want to give up my tech toys and business tools. The high tech supply chain is broken. Work is being done to fix it on both ends, but it is without a doubt broken. Even when devices are recycled, how does the recycler know what…

Via Seth, I found a way to loan through Kiva while offering up nothing more than my pride. I picked a ZZ Top beard, because every girl's crazy for a Sharp Dressed Man. Sometimes change is hard. Sometimes it seems like there's no hope. Then again, sometimes change is simple, fun and silly. It doesn't feel like change at all when that happens. It just seems like you found a fun new toy to play with.Wheeeeeeeee!  

Paul Boutin writes in Wired via Valleywag that you should kill your blog. In my humble opinion, he's right and wrong. You shouldn't kill your blog, but you should recognize the role that it plays in a larger ecosystem of information and if you really want people to read it, you have to get it out into that ecosystem. Saying that you shouldn't write a blog because there are a bunch of professional sites out there hogging the spotlight is like saying that you shouldn't write a book because there are a bunch of professionals clogging up the New York Time's bestseller lists. You may never have…

This world we live in can be a frivolous place, and that's fine. There's a place for silliness, and as I said in my previous post, there are benefits to time spent just farting around. Sometimes, however, enough is enough. With world financial markets creating a gust of dust bowl nostalgia around the world, I am having a harder time dealing with silliness as a business model. The developer of iBeer, an iPhone app that allows you to simulate the ingestion of beer without quenching your thirst or becoming inebriated, is suing Coors for making the copycat iPint app. (The developer, Hittrix, also…

MIT and the Legatum Center for Development and Entrepreneurship are pleased to introduce its fellowship program for aspiring entrepreneurs who wish to develop innovative businesses that will promote prosperity in the developing world. The program is open to incoming and current MIT graduate students, across all academic and professional disciplines. The fellowship provides financial assistance, business plan coaching, specialized seminars, and opportunities to engage with some of the world’s leading thinkers and change-agents. Applications now being accepted for the 2009-2010 MIT Legatum…

Marketing, Mr. Lavoie says, can help One Laptop Per Child move toward its original goal of a $100 laptop, which is possible only with the economies of high-volume manufacturing. “To get there, they need to sell a lot of computers,” he said. New York Times

“You can just literally make energy from dirt,” said Aviva Presser, a graduate student at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. “And there’s a lot of dirt in Africa.” New York Times Link to Lebone website Lebônê Light + Energy = Opportunity Lebônê Solutions, Inc. is a social enterprise working in off-grid energy delivery and lighting technology. The mission of Lebônê is to help end the energy and lighting crisis in Africa by identifying and harnessing emerging technologies, developing and adapting them for the African market, and delivering them to rural…

Filing this one under digital divide: This device, called a Network Relief Kit, weighs less than four pounds and “is a grand slam invention,” Mr. Lopes said. “It’s portable, light and brings the outside world to the most remote, disconnected places.” It was created by NetHope, a collaboration of nonprofit organizations and technology companies working to improve humanitarian aid around the world. Founded in 2001, NetHope, which is based near Washington, has engaged in relief efforts after natural disasters like storms and earthquakes, as well as armed conflict. Charitable donors…

“The purpose, I would urge all of you — as many of you as are willing to take it up — is to bring about a higher level of consciousness about our planet and the imminent danger and opportunity we face because of the radical transformation in the relationship between human beings and the Earth,” Mr. Gore said Friday evening at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco. Link to New York Times

Just as optimism reigns in the US, I've been reading about arguably its darkest days of recent times in the Iraq War. Fiasco by Thomas Ricks (a US journalist on the Washington Post) details the build-up to the war, the...

...was, of course, on which photos were going to win the Social Enterprise Day photo competition. Rarely has an electoral college vote been better used inside the Coalition.........or was it about which CAN founder gave the best speech at their...

Round-up of recent news, views, links and opinions; at the start of the week for a change....- Interesting article by Simon Caulkin in the Observer on EAGA, a partnership that works on fuel poverty and green service: Hot prospects for...

I mentioned in my review of Made to Stick (incidentally, they have a website about it here) the other day about statistics giving credibility, but often inducing glazed eyes and heavy eyelids. But, in the broader area of evaluation and...

Part of me thinks I should blog about the new £6m Bank of Scotland social entrepreneur awards, announced this weekend in the Times. Obviously all new money and publicity for the movement is welcome...but my excitement lessened slightly on reading...