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Dear Skoll Newsletter Subscriber, We've posted the following stories to the Skoll Foundation Blog over the last two weeks: Root Capital Reaches Important Milestone
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 more than 400,000 smallholder producers and their families. Root Capital was founded 10 years ago by Skoll social entrepreneur Willy Foote to bring financing to grassroots businesses in rural areas of developing countries. Ceres Leads Coalition of Institutional Investors Asking for Oil Producer Safety Plans
A coalition of institutional investors led by Ceres announced that it is pressing oil and gas companies to better disclose its spill prevention and response plans for deepwater wells worldwide. The coalition of 58 mostly institutional investors, that together manage $2.5 trillion, is requesting, among other things, that companies disclose their investments in spill prevention technologies, their contingency plans in the event of a deepwater well blowout and their risk exposure to possible new regulations on deepwater drilling activities. Ceres, headed by Skoll social entrepreneur Mindy Lubber, is committed to promoting investor activism in environmental and social issues. You can read more about the coalition’s demands, along with the investor letters, on the Ceres website. Jeff Skoll Takes Giving Pledge
About six weeks ago, Warren Buffett and Bill and Melinda Gates kicked off an effort, called the Giving Pledge, to encourage the wealthiest Americans to commit to giving more than half of their wealth to philanthropy or charitable causes. When Buffett announced the first 40 families and individuals to join the pledge, Jeff Skoll was on the list. In his pledge, Jeff writes, “… I will continue to tell stories that awaken enlightened self-interest, activate citizen engagement, and galvanize political will. I will continue to double down on innovative solutions that have enduring social impact. And I will continue to support catalytic mechanisms, like the Skoll World Forum and TakePart, that unite the forces of change from all corners and cultures of humanity.” You can read the entirety of Jeff’s pledge here.
YouthBuild USA Awarded $10 Million Grant from Dept. of Labor
YouthBuild USA, founded by Skoll social entrepreneur Dorothy Stoneman, was recently 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 YouthBuild USA to build upon the success of its earlier youthful-offender programs, which have demonstrated that for every dollar invested in a court-involved YouthBuild student, there is a return to society of at least $10.90 and up to $43.80. Grant funds will be used specifically to engage 640 young adults in eight low-income communities after holding a competition among qualifying local YouthBuild programs. YouthBuild USA will also build a parallel campaign with private funds to persuade state governments to fund prevention and re-entry programs to lower the costs of crime and incarceration by creating pathways out of poverty.
Mechai Viravaidya Appointed to New UNAIDS Commission
Skoll social entrepreneur Mechai Viravaidya, who founded the Population and Community Development Association in Thailand in 1974, has been named as a member to the UNAIDS High Level Commission on HIV Prevention along with 14 other world leaders. This was announced at the recent International AIDS conference in Vienna. The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) noted in a press release that the comissioners will use their unique authority and influence to lead a social and political action campaign over the coming year aimed at galvanizing support for effective HIV prevention programmes. |
"When you do the common things in life in an uncommon way, you will command the attention of the world." George Washington CarverWhat is Social Entrepreneurship?Statement of Faith
Root Capital Reaches Important Milestone
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