Fastest growth in number of ‘microborrowers’ in Latin America, says Update

The number of people worldwide taking out microfinance loans – ‘microborrowers’ – increased by 17 per cent in 2006, benefiting both communities and the environment, according to the latest Vital Signs Update released by the Worldwatch Institute. Click here to read ...

Brazil: A recyclable investment programme

Waste collection cooperatives in Brazil will be able to apply to the Investimento Reciclável (Recyclable Investment) programme for financial and technical support. The programme, a joint effort by Banco Real, Fundación Avina (Avina Foundation) and the Suzano Papel e Celulose (Suzano Paper and Cellulose) plant, is coordinated by the Instituto Ecofuturo (Ecofuturo Institute) and serves as a financing fund that is more attractive than what is offered by the conventional finance system. With an initial investment of R$ 360,000 (approximately US$220,000), the fund will offer loans for the acquisition of equipment and working capital. Funds are given in soft loans that must be returned within two years. Click here to read ...

New website to plug information gap for UK social investors

Social business investment and research firm Catalyst has launched a new website, socialinvestments.com, which aims to be a comprehensive resource on social investing in the UK. The site, launched at the Skoll World Forum on Social Entrepreneurship in March, provides information on nearly 100 viable and growing social businesses in the UK. It also provides a framework for categorizing them, as well as a glossary of over 150 relevant industry terms, answers to frequently asked questions, and links to useful sites and related material. Click here to read ...

Rockefeller grant to support UK-based social stock exchange

Plans to develop a social stock exchange (SSE) in the UK as a means of improving access to finance for social businesses have been given a boost by a GBP 250,000 (US$500,000) grant from the Rockefeller Foundation to support research into the feasibility of establishing an exchange.

Speaking at a media briefing at the Skoll World Forum for Social Entrepreneurship at the end of March, Anthony Bugg-Levine of the Rockefeller Foundation said that the research is taking place in the UK because the UK government has a proactive approach to providing a good policy environment. It is therefore more likely that the SSE will succeed there. If established, however, it will bring in companies from all around the world. Click here to read ...

5th Skoll World Forum on Social Entrepreneurship

The annual Skoll World Forum on Social Entrepreneurship, now in its fifth year, is above all a celebration of social entrepreneurship and social entrepreneurs. The annual Skoll Awards are unchallenged Oscars of the field. The recent Forum, held in Oxford, UK at the end of March, was also live testimony to the pulling power - sorry, convening power - of today's philanthropists, with one ex-US President, one almost President and a clutch of Nobel Laureates heading a glittering array of speakers. Click here to read ...

Ashoka launches Social Investment Entrepreneurs Programme

Obtaining capital is the biggest challenge facing the growing global citizen sector - a deficiency that Ashoka aims to address through its new Social Investment Entrepreneurs (SIE) Programme, which will find, invest in and support people who are pursuing new ideas for mobilizing capital to solve social problems. Ashoka has elected over 20 SIE Fellows to date and aims to identify 30 Fellows worldwide each year. Click here to read ...

First UK Fellows for Ashoka

After 18 months of fundraising, relationship-building and search, social entrepreneur network Ashoka has elected its first four UK-based Fellows, individuals with system-changing ideas and the potential for transforming their particular field.

They are:

Al Harris, a London-based marine conservationist who is realizing an innovative model to roll out community-managed marine protected areas in Madagascar.

Bob Paterson, who is developing a new approach to the creation of affordable housing through the development of Community Land Trusts. Click here to read ...

Eradicate Poverty through Business

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Growing social innovations – finding the key

Why do some innovations, like village-level microcredit, distance learning or street papers sold by the homeless, spread while others languish? In spite of much interest and considerable debate about how to scale up promising innovations, no one really knows. A research project by the UK-based Young Foundation on growing social innovations is an attempt to find an answer.

The project combines four elements: detailed case studies of organizations like Alcoholics Anonymous, Teach First and the Big Issue; a synthesis of the literature on growth, including insights from business studies, biology, economics and sociology; development of an analytic model; and a guide to help funders and innovators themselves. Click here to read ...

Big Give set to make life easier for big givers

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