Skoll Foundation

The Change We Seek

We work toward a world where economic and social equity benefits all segments of society, not a select few. Those with great advantages have a responsibility to share their good fortune by investing in opportunities for those less fortunate; their return on that investment will be a better, more peaceful and prosperous world for themselves, their families and future generations. There are boundless opportunities to develop paths out of poverty – limited only by imagination and enhanced by dedication and the creative application of resources.

EDUCATION AND EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY:

College Summit helps students complete their college applications and develop a college list, producing a 20 percent increase in college enrollment for participants.

Community and Individual Development Association, or CIDA, created CIDA City Campus, South Africa’s first free university. They have provided education to more than 5,000 students who could not afford it otherwise.

The Afghan Institute for Learning (AIL) provides education to 235,000 Afghan women and children and has impacted 7 million Afghans through teacher training and workshops on human rights, women’s rights, peace, and leadership.

Arzu pays women weavers above-market compensation for handwoven rugs and provides literacy, education and health benefits. Its rugs are sold on www.arzustudiohope.org. Arzu reconstructed the carpet supply chain to accommodate custom and contract orders, leading to a 44% growth in sales.

Barefoot College educates poor Indians (mostly women) through peer-to-peer learning and is transformational in that it relies on the passing on of traditional skills and knowledge. Locals are trained as doctors, teachers, engineers, architects, designers, mechanics, communicators and accountants and they use technology in innovative ways: mobile phones are set to work monitoring water quality through an online dataset, solar-powered cookers are constructed to break dependence on wood.

Change through Digital Inclusion (CDI) sets up computer labs and offers training in everything from basic computer services to IT skills. CDI has built more than 800 community centers in thirteen countries giving more than 1.3 million people access to the Web, the bulk in Brazil and many for the first time. CDI maintains computers that would otherwise be discarded by companies making upgrades, and supports use of the equipment in community development projects.

Aflatoun promotes a culture of saving, builds money skills and develops responsibility, reaching more than 540,000 children in about 5,000 schools in 32 countries worldwide.

Room to Read is a global organization focusing on literacy and gender equality in education in the developing world. Room to Read helps develop literacy skills and a habit of reading among primary school children and ensures girls have the skills and support needed to complete their secondary education.  Since 2000, Room to Read has impacted the lives of more than four million children in Asia and Africa and aims to reach 10 million children by 2015.

Escuela Nueva “New School” gives children in rural areas learning materials using curricula they developed themselves. Adopted by Colombia’s Ministry of Education and duplicated in 16 countries, in 2009 they provided 87,000 low-income children in Colombia with learning materials, covering 30 percent of the rural primary student population.

Pratham provides quality education for underprivileged elementary school age children in India. Its programs focus on urban areas to increase the enrollment and learning levels of children living in urban slums.

YouthBuild USA teaches at-risk young people to construct homes and offers at-risk youth leadership training, education and skills that lead to good jobs. It’s helped change national policy: its principle that low-income youth should be included as service givers in American national service programs is now standard.  It’s affected the international landscape, with more than 10 countries now hosting YouthBuild.

Half the Sky (HTS) is challenging the institutionalized inefficiency of state-run orphanages in China. They convinced the government to exclusively partner with them and implement HTS models throughout the country.

Tostan has helped abandon the practice of female genital cutting  (FGC) and child marriages in five African countries. It has taught human rights to more than 200,000 villagers. Tostan’s approach has been integrated into international strategies, including 10 U.N. agencies and 5 governments. In Senegal, the government has adopted a National Action Plan that calls for using the human rights approach pioneered by Tostan to end FGC by 2015.

Citizen Schools transforms American after-school programs from an afterthought to part of large-scale education reform. Their program for low-income middle school students entails hands-on learning staffed by volunteer Citizen Teachers.

Civic Ventures develops ways for baby boomers to remain engaged in society through paving the path for the encore career. As people live longer, Civic Ventures provides tools for older generations to remain engaged and give back to society through meaningful work that uses their talents and experience.

Sonidos de la Tierra “Sounds of the Land” inspires kids through music and engages entire communities to support performances, reaching more than 12,000 children from Central and South America.

Manchester Bidwell Corporation (MBC) is a vocational training program with art and recording studios, computer classrooms, a music hall and an industrial kitchen. MBC’s youth programs connect arts knowledge and skills with academic standards, citizenship and life disciplines. It also has career education.

Camfed fights poverty and AIDS in Africa by educating girls and empowering young women. It packages scholarships, community support, and mentor networks to help girls succeed in school and prepare for jobs. More than 1.4 million have benefited from Camfed’s holistic intervention from elementary school to adulthood.

INJAZ Al-Arab is the only significant educational program in the Middle East focused on empowering young people by bringing leaders from the private sector into the classroom to teach entrepreneurship, work and life skills. It reaches 68,000 students a year in 13 Arab countries.

New Teacher Center has refined a model to pair veteran teachers with talented and inexperienced new teachers, launching New Teacher Center in 1998. In 2010, the center reached more than 26,000 teachers to affect 1.84 million students. To bolster its impact, the Center plays an active role in the National Education Policy debate, advocating for state and federal policies.

GoodWeave eliminates the exploitation of bonded child laborers in carpet manufacturing. In Nepal, Pakistan and India, the organization monitors factories, certifies carpets made without bonded labor and rescues and educates child laborers. 9,000 children have attended school under GoodWeave sponsorship.

Free The Children (FTC) provides educational opportunities to children around the world, thus freeing them to pursue their dreams and bring about positive social change. They organize volunteer service trips to Asia, Africa and Central America and built more than 500 schools in those areas.

Friends-International helps prevent child abuse.  Its model has been established or replicated in 12 countries. It has two key programs: ChildSafe, which involves local leaders and tourists in prevention, and The Street Children Network, which makes services available to street children.

Teach For All aims to eliminate educational inequality by leveraging promising future leaders to teach in public school classrooms, providing children with committed, energetic teachers and creating lifelong advocates among alumni for high-quality public education. Teach For America attracted more than 35,000 talented graduates for 4,100 teaching slots.

Digital Divide Data’s global partnership between its Western business arm and its high-touch Southeast Asian social service program creates a unique and scalable fair trade model for development across industries. They have graduated 400 people in Cambodia and Laos to high-skilled jobs in which they make more than 4 times the average regional wage. Their business is sustainable, generating over $3 million in revenue last fiscal year while realizing efficiency gains.

INCOME AND FOOD SECURITY

Root Capital has given more than 780 loans totaling $200 million in credit to 290 small businesses across Latin America and Sub-Saharan Africa. It’s financed the cultivation of 1.3 million acres of sustainable agriculture, and trained 74 businesses in financial management.

Fundación Paraguaya gives microcredit and entrepreneurship education to thousands of small businesses. It became a leader in microenterprise development as Paraguay transitioned to democracy and developed a self-sustaining, productive agricultural school that offers credit upon graduation.

Population and Community Development Association helped stop rapid population growth in Thailand, and teaches HIV/AIDS. It also gives micro-credit loans. PDA’s approach to reproductive health over 35 years resulted in Thailand’s population growth rate declining from 3.2 percent in 1974 to 0.5 percent in 2005, and, according to a World Bank study, an estimated 7.7 million lives were saved as a result of PDA’s HIV prevention campaigns.

Kiva is a pioneer of Internet microfinance. Kiva has roughly 700,000 registered users who have lent around $120 million in four years, spreading the cause of microfinance and empowerment to the mass market.

Kashf Foundation stands out from other microfinance institutions because of its offerings that empower women. Kashf is the first microfinance (MFI) to achieve financial sustainability in Pakistan; it’s the third largest MFI in the country, with 288,000 clients through 150+ branches. Kashf has a pioneering life insurance product and Forbes named Kashf a Top 50 Global Microfinance Institution in 2007.

KickStart sells irrigation pumps in Kenya, which have helped create 91,000 profitable new businesses. These businesses generate $92 million in new profits and wages each year, lifting 455,000 people out of poverty.

International Development Enterprises India’s (IDE-India) sells a treadle pump and rip system, selling affordable irrigation technologies. Every product produces a net return on investment of more than 100 percent of the purchase price every year. IDE-India’s treadle pump and drip system are used by more than 1 million smallholder farmers. These farmers make an additional $400 every year, with cumulative farmer earnings of over $1 billion over 15 years.

One Acre Fund provides rural farmers in Kenya and Rwanda with farming inputs, training and capacity building, and access to markets. In less than four years, One Acre Fund has helped triple the harvests and double the income per acre for subsistence farm families.

SUSTAINABLE MARKETS

Verite helps involve workers in the factory audit process. For example, in partnership with just a single leading brand, Verité’s social investigations helped return $3 million to hundreds of poor migrant workers in Asia who were cheated by labor brokers.