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Dear Skoll Newsletter Subscriber, We've posted the following stories to the Skoll Foundation Blog over the last two weeks: Concert for Pakistan: Jeff Skoll on Supporting Pakistani Refugees
Jeff Skoll writes about why he's supporting the September 12 Concert for Pakistan at the United Nations in New York, an effort to raise awareness and funds for the more than 3 million refugees displaced by conflict in Pakistan. Read more comments from supporters about the Concert for Pakistan on TakePart. Learning Through Evaluation
The Skoll Foundation's Lakshmi Karan, Director for Impact Assessment, Learning and Utilization, wrote this week on the GOOD Magazine blog about the importance of continuous learning for organizational growth. You can read the post here. A View from the Social Capital Markets Conference
The Skoll Foundation's Dan Crisafulli, who participated in the opening plenary panel at SOCAP09, provides his assessment of the event. While acknowledging the momentum behind social capital markets, Dan points out that "Getting to major scale simply won't happen on the basis of philanthropically oriented capital. Foundations and other investors willing to take a ‘social haircut' shouldn't kid themselves that private funders will continue to subsidize their creations along an S curve of significant growth." He identifies three priorities for future work: Get the business model right. Tap into funding for scale. Change the rules of the game. Huffington Post Features Camfed
Julia Moulden has a good piece on the Huffington Post on the importance for economic development of educating girls. Skoll social entrepreneur Ann Cotton of Camfed is featured. Among other things, the article talks about Camfed's work with Goldman Sachs on its "10,000 Women Initiative." Larry Brilliant Talks About Aravind with NewsHour on PBS
The NewsHour on PBS ran a story on the Aravind Eye Hospital, part of NewsHour's ongoing social entrepreneurship coverage that the Skoll Foundation has helped fund. There's an online companion segment which includes an interview with Larry Brilliant, president of the new Skoll Urgent Threats Fund, who talks about his early involvement in supporting the creation of Aravind through the Seva Foundation. Final Day in the Middle East
Jeff Skoll writes about his final day in the Middle East as part of The Elders delegation visit to the region. It includes visits to Tzur Hadassah and Waki Fukin, Israeli and Palestinian towns paired as part of the "Good Water Neighbors" initiative run by EcoPeace/Friends of the Earth Middle East, a Skoll Award recipient. (See a separate post, including a photo, on The Elders' EcoPeace visit here). Jeff's conclusions: The trip achieved its aims of meeting with a cross section of society from Israel, the West Bank and Gaza and highlighting both the work of organizations striving towards peace, as well as concern about humanitarian conditions in Gaza. The meetings with youth, civil society, business and political leaders reinforced the notion that we are at a crossroads for peace in the region and that the U.S. must take a firm leadership role now to compel Israel to freeze settlements and end the blockade of Gaza. In addition, it is clear that there is a role for business and the international community to play to improve conditions in the region over time. Foundation Announces New Grants
The Foundation announced a series of grants approved by the Skoll Foundation board at its most recent meeting. These include a new Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship for Civic Ventures, supplemental investments in recipients of the Skoll Award from the 2006 cohort, and investments in ecosystem partners Ashoka and ShoreCap II. You can read more here. Citizen Schools Gets Good Grades
Citizen Schools has just received some good grades for its work. Since 2001, Policy Studies Associates to been conducting a longitudinal study of Citizen Schools' program and impact. The study compares students who participate in Citizen Schools' after-school programs to similar students who do not participate, following both groups from middle school into high school. Read the latest findings. Day Four in the Middle East
Jeff Skoll continues his daily reports from the Middle East as part of The Elders delegation. The day includes a videoconference with civil society leaders in Gaza, where the ongoing poor humanitarian conditions were made clear, another videoconference with Gazan youth (including one whose job was digging tunnels to Egypt), a visit to Bil'in, a Palestinian village that has organized non-violent protests against the Israelis since 2005, an Elders visit with Hamas, a meeting with Palestinian families recently evicted from East Jerusalem, and a dinner with UN representatives. Flying With Jeff Skoll on Air Canada
If you're flying Air Canada this month, you'll find a profile of Jeff Skoll in the inflight magazine, EnRoute. Jeff was born and raised in Canada, so is a native son. It's a quick view into Jeff's take on the world. Day Three in the Middle East
Jeff Skoll blogs on his third day in the Middle East as part of The Elders delegation. The Elders met with Shimon Peres, crossed into Palestine via the Qalandia checkpoint, met with Palestinian refugees, had a discussion with the wife of the imprisoned Palestinian political figure, Marwan Barghouti, visited with Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, had a roundtable with Palestinian experts, and had dinner with approximately 40 Palestinian civil society leaders. Jeff and Richard Branson also met with local business leaders. Outlook Business India Focuses on Social Entrepreneurs
Outlook Business India has focused its current issue on social entrepreneurs, identifying 50 innovators driving social change in India. The work of Amitabha Sadangi, a 2005 Skoll social entrepreneur who runs IDE-India, and Bunker Roy, a 2005 Skoll social entrepreneur who runs Barefoot College, is profiled respectively here and here. Pamela Hartigan, director of the Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship at Oxford, is quoted in the lead story. There's also a sidebar article around defining social entrepreneurship which references Skoll Foundation CEO Sally Osberg and Skoll board member Roger Martin's 2007 essay on the topic. Skoll at SOCAP 2009
The Skoll family was well represented at the Social Capital Markets 2009 conference in San Francisco. Dan Crisafulli, who heads up ecosystem investments and partnerships at the Skoll Foundation, spoke on a panel on forecasting markets. Jill Finlayson of the Foundation led a panel entitled Make the Maps, Mind the Gaps, Build the Apps, focused on ways to help social entrepreneurs, funders and service providers navigate and find each other efficiently. Skoll Award recipients Village Reach, Kiva, Water.org, Kickstart, Vision Spring, Root Capital and Benetech also attended. | 
Jeff Skoll with The Elders in the Middle East
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