Social Entrepreneurship

SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP
— some notes from Oxford / UK — March 2007

vivian Hutchinson
Social Innovation Investment Group
New Zealand Social Entrepreneur Fellowship
THE 2007
SKOLL WORLD FORUM
ON SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP
27–29 MARCH 2007
THREE DAYS AND NIGHTS,

650 INNOVATORS,
FROM OVER 40 COUNTRIES,
WORKING TOGETHER
TO TIP THE SYSTEM
SPECIAL FOCUS: SOCIAL INNOVATION
The next Skoll World Forum will major on social

innovation, asking how we overcome the social
innovation gap, drive up downward accountability as
we scale initiatives, and how social entrepreneurs can
better align support for breakthrough models?
This year, we also:
 Run applied workshops where changemakers can

probe the ways new ideas work in practice and how
they apply to their own ventures
 Sustain a growing international debate about

innovation in the supply of ﬁnance for social change
 Advance academic enquiry into the issues that will

ensure social entrepreneurship is a force for good for
the long term
The Skoll World Forum has rapidly established itself

as the leading event in the social entrepreneurship
calendar where individuals in the social sector, business
and government can take a passionate and critical
approach to resolving the planet’s biggest challenges.
The Forum sells out early. So book the dates. Contact

skollcentre@sbs.ox.ac.uk if we don’t have your
details. And watch this space for further news through
the Autumn.
some notes from the Skoll World Forum on Social Entrepreneurship
Said Business School, Oxford University 2629 March 2007
vivian Hutchinson
Executive Officer
Summary
• This was easily the best conference I have been to in a long while ... it was well run, it
attracted a unique diversity of participants, the content had a great deal of depth to it, and
there was robust debate that was engaging and extending.
• There were 700 participants from 40 countries including a rich mix of social
entrepreneurs, human rights activists, academics, business leaders, philanthropists and
funders. Many of these people could be counted amongst the most remarkable change
makers of our generation. The Forum provided an unique opportunity for the exchange of
legitimacy, insight and creativity between the different communities of these participants.
• The conference lived up to its reputation of being the main World Forum in the field of
social entrepreneurship. As part of developing our projects with the Social Innovation
Investment Group and the New Zealand Social Entrepreneur Fellowship, I have been
researching and studying who are the key “movers and shakers” in the international scene
of social entrepreneurship. Almost all of them were present at this gathering.
• There was so much going on, with up to seven workshops happening at the same time
as well as breakfast sessions and Master Classes at the lunchtime breaks. But it still hung
together well, particularly around the main plenary sessions which were held in Oxford’s
historic Sheldonian Theatre.
• Highlights for me included:
— sessions from Geoff Mulgan, Bill Drayton, Charles Handy, Muhammad Yunus and
Larry Brilliant
— the inevitable sharing of inspiring stories from the many social entrepreneurs, but
particularly Gillian Caldwell and Peter Gabriel, Karen Tse and Taddy Blecher.
— the widening of the sense of social entrepreneurship from elite “celebrity” stories
towards recognising the social innovation and entrepreneurship that is also found in
groups and movements.
— a sense of the growing literacy about just what makes up the process of social
innovation, understanding the life cycle of innovations and how to foster innovation
more effectively in many different sectors.
— the “open source” example of Ashoka Changemakers, which represents a
innovative model for sharing emergent knowledge and practice.
— the practical sessions aimed at Foundations and philanthropy about how to be
more venturesome in giving financial support to new ideas and programmes.
• I’ve come away with an immense amount to think about, as well as links, contacts and
ideas to follow up on. I’ve also had the opportunity to renew some of the international
contacts I made at the gathering of “outstanding social entrepreneurs” organised by the
Schwab Foundation at Davos last year, and at the Innovation Funders meeting in San
Francisco.
• This report contains my personal diary notes from the Forum. It is a combination of a
description of the sessions I went to, my thoughts at the time, and the links and research I
have been doing on the people and their projects since the Forum took place.
vivian Hutchinson
— some notes from the Skoll World Forum 2007 — Page 3 of 39
— I have created a “blog” website of this report which contains live internet links of all
the contacts and references mentioned in this document. You can also view video of the
conference directly from these webpages at http://vivianoxford07.blogspot.com
— An online album of photographs which I took at this conference can be found at the
Flickr photosharing website at http://www.flickr.com/photos/8063917@N06/
• There was an obvious pressure from the sheer numbers of people around the world who
would have liked to have attended this Forum, and the Skoll Foundation had an interesting
process in stagemanaging just who was going to be there. You could apply to go on a pre
registration list, and the organisers obviously did some digging into backgrounds before
inviting a core group of people to come. After this, the formal registration gates were only
open for a very short time before it was announced that the Forum was full.
• Beyond the 700 people attending at Oxford, there was a large “virtual” participation at
this Forum, thanks to the live streaming of the plenary sessions and the blogger
contributions of many people involved with the socialedge.org website.
• One of my roles as Executive Officer of our Investment Group and the NZSEF is to help
build our international links and relationships with other social entrepreneur networks and
philanthropic foundations that are fostering social innovation. At our first NZSEF Fellowship
retreat in February, there was some discussion about how our local work in New Zealand
needs to be put more into an international context ... and that there was much that we
could learn from in the good ideas and practical strategies for change that are emerging
overseas. Participating in the Skoll World Forum is an excellent entry point into these
opportunities to network and learn.
• Beyond this learning and networking, the Skoll World Forum is providing a very timely
focus of hope in a world faced with deepseated and complex problems. It is nearly
impossible to feel cynicism and despair when surrounded by the stories and examples of
literally hundreds of inspirational people who are just getting on and making a practical
difference.
vivian Hutchinson
www.nzsef.org.nz
April 2007
Resources.
— The website for the Oxford Said Business School Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship
is at http://www.sbs.ox.ac.uk/skoll/
— The Forum website homepage at the Skoll Foundation is at
http://www.skollfoundation.org/skollcentre/skoll_forum.asp
— The Forum website homepage at Social Edge is at
http://www.socialedge.org/features/skoll‐world‐forum/skoll‐world‐forum‐2007
— a PDF copy of this report (40 pages, 1.5MB) can be downloaded from
www.nzsef.org.nz/dox/pdf/vivianoxford07.pdf
vivian Hutchinson
Academic Network for Social Entrepreneurship
meeting in Nelson Mandela Lecture Theatre, Said Business School
Monday 26th March 2007
• This was a pregathering meeting held on the day before the main conference started. I
thought I would arrive at the Forum early and check it out. This Academic Network brings
together universities that are fostering social enterprise in their various courses. It aims to
develop social entrepreneurship as a vocation and as a field of intellectual endeavour, and
to carry social entrepreneurship principles into other disciplines and sectors. The Network
also acts as a professional clearinghouse of resources that will be useful to both
academics and practitioners.
There is now quite a large network of universities connected in this academic network,
including all the major “brands”: Oxford, Cambridge, Harvard, Stanford, etc as well as
Universities from Asia and Latin America. Ashoka is also one of the founding partners.
Gregory Dees speaking to the University Network meeting in the Nelson Mandela
Theatre, Said Business School, Oxford University 26 March 2007 — photo Hutchinson
• Once the session opened, the speakers on this day got right into the controversies on
how things are going to be defined, how to judge effective management of social
enterprises, and how all this can be fitted into and assessed within a mainstream
university system, and marketed toward students. It all felt like quite a healthy and
contested space of inquiry.
Curiously enough, many of the university representatives remarked that it is the interest of
students in this whole area of social entrepreneurship which seems to be one of the main
drivers of the establishment of the university courses. Many of the universities are racing
to keep up with the interest and demand of students for these course options. This is
further in evidence by the growth of independent university clubs and student voluntary
organisations that are about supporting social enterprises and connecting with social
services in their local area. This was all very encouraging to hear.
• The explosion of academic interest is also obvious in the growth of the serious literature
that is now available. The Skoll Centre’s leading Oxford scholar, Alex Nichols, reported that
up until recently there were hardly any academic books available on the subject of social
enterprise. But in 2006 alone, six academic volumes were published. And at this Forum,
Oxford University Press held a book launching of Alex Nichol’s own tome — an edited
collection of many of the contributions and papers presented to earlier Skoll Forums.
vivian Hutchinson
• The most impressive speaker at this session was Gregory Dees, of Duke University, who
is the man credited as being the leading academic in the discipline of social
entrepreneurship. Dees presented a paper summarising his interviews with many social
entrepreneurs, and his thoughts on how to strengthen the field of social entrepreneurship.
(Refreshingly, he wasn’t into splitting academic hairs on how things were defined. “The
academics and funders are more interested in this than practitioners...”)
Dees remarked that the university network needs to recognise that
they need a whole new model of how their knowledge is shared ...
because so much of what is going on just doesn’t fit the academic
paradigm. He pointed out that social entrepreneur practitioners
were not reaching out to the academics in search of the knowledge
that is being gathered within the university courses.
Not too many of the academics at this meeting were recognising
the growth of “peer learning communities” and Fellowships amongst
social entrepreneurs as an innovative and entrepreneurial response
to their own learning needs. Very few of the social entrepreneurs I spoke to at the Forum
were interested in going on a structured academic course, or even felt that they wanted to
get more “qualified”. At the same time, they are obviously learners who want to do their
work better ... and are looking to one another to get to the edges of their learning.
• The University Network has struck up a collaboration with the Social Science Research
Network to provide a forum where all the recent papers, research and reports and course
material on social entrepreneurship can be gathered in one place. I’ve taken a look at it ...
and while you have to do a bit of digging to get to the relevant social entrepreneurship
section, it does hold potential to be an important place for sharing and commenting on the
research materials as they are generated.
• Hardly anyone I had spoken to at the Forum had heard of the recentlypublished
Canadian book “Getting To Maybe” which I was able to recommend as a great example of
how academics have taken up the challenge of making their research, wisdom and insights
more useful to practitioners.
• During this day, there was quite a bit of emphasis on scoping, mapping and defining
social entrepreneurship in terms of what they are promoting as a new academic field of
endeavour. This is something I’m personally not too convinced about ... or rather, I think
there is far too much talk about all this being “new”.
My own view is that social entrepreneurship has always been with us in many different
guises, although it is “new” to brand it in the way that it is framed within these
conferences. I do agree, however, that we seem to be on the verge of a growing literacy
as to the practice of social innovation. The academic research has a great deal to
contribute in this regard ... but, for me, this is not so much about the creation and
branding of a whole new academic field — it is more about noticing and developing the
language to describe just what is making a difference. It is about developing this literacy
on how fundamental sustainable social change is achieved.
Resources.
— the website for the University Network is at http://www.universitynetwork.org
— Gregory Dees leads the Centre for the Advancement of Social Entrepreneurship at Duke
University http://www.fuqua.duke.edu/centers/case/
— The Social Science Research Network archive of papers is at
http://www.ssrn.com/update/erpn/erpn_social‐entrepreneurship.html.
— “Social Entrepreneurship: New Models of Sustainable Social Change” edited by Dr Alex
Nicholls. (book pub 2006 by Oxford University Press)
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/asin/0199283877/nzsef‐20
— “Getting to Maybe: How The World Is Changed” by Frances Westley, Brenda Zimmerman
and Michael Quinn Patton (book pub Random House Canada 2006)
vivian Hutchinson
Changemakers Ashoka Network Meeting
meeting in Nelson Mandela Lecture Theatre, Said Business School
Tuesday 27th March 2007
• The next morning there was another pre
conference session from Bill Drayton and the
Ashoka Network. Bill Drayton is considered the
“elder statesman” of the social entrepreneurship
field, and is credited with popularising the term
itself. He has a remarkable track record of 30
years of supporting social entrepreneurs through
the Ashoka Network, as well as establishing and
leading many innovative projects himself.
• Most of you will know that, in New Zealand,
The Jobs Research Trust (of which I am a
trustee) has launched a new initiative which is
also called Changemakers. There are many
groups around the world calling themselves
changemakers ... so it is probably just as well
that there is plenty of opportunities for change
to go around! Our New Zealand group is based around a 510510 strategy to foster more
active citizenship in our communities. (For more information see
http://www.changemakers.org.nz)
This Jobs Research Trust project was partly inspired by Bill Drayton’s speech at last year’s
Skoll World Forum. At that time, Drayton remarked that until recently, Ashoka has been
stating its mission chiefly in terms of “building a more entrepreneurial and competitive not
forprofit sector”. But more recently, he has come to reassess this goal:
“ The most important contribution any of us can make now is not to solve any
particular problem, no matter how urgent energy or environmental or financial
regulation is. What we must do now is increase the proportion of humans who know
that they can cause change. And who, like smart white blood cells coursing through
society, will stop with pleasure whenever they see that something is stuck or that an
opportunity is ripe to be seized. Multiplying society's capacity to adapt and change
intelligently and constructively and building the necessary underlying collaborative
architecture, is the world's most critical opportunity now. Pattern‐changing social
entrepreneurs are the most critical single factor in catalysing and engineering this
transformation ...” — from “Everyone a Changemaker”, by Bill Drayton (2006)
• In his opening speech at this Ashoka Changemakers session, Bill Drayton reiterated
many of the key points of his “everyone a changemaker” worldview. He believes that the
next big step in the field of social entrepreneurship is tackling the question of how we do
entrepreneurship together. He sees this as complementary to the fostering of an elite
leadership model that so many of the Fellowships (like his own Ashoka) are focussing on.
The Ashoka team then went on to outline their latest initiative in “opensourcing”
innovations in various fields of social change. Their Changemakers approach is a strategy
of sharing ideas for innovation as they are happening, and in a way that entrepreneurs can
easily adapt them to their own local conditions.
Changemakers sets up thematic “collaborative competitions” between local groups from all
around the world which are asked to present their ideas and projects for change on
complex social areas. These ideas and projects for change are all placed on an open
website at www.changemakers.net. A panel of key decisionmakers and investors (from the
leading philanthropic foundations) then assesses the applications, and picks the 1012
finalists which they then bring together to collaborate on an overall plan for the whole
social area.
vivian Hutchinson
An interesting tool being used in this collaborative process is the use of a “Changemakers
Mosaic” of the innovative solutions generated by each competition. The Mosaic serves as
an intellectual framework which maps at a glance the most powerful emerging principles of
innovation against the underlying factors that drive a problem. It helps social innovators
see how their work fits into a larger picture and demonstrates that the collective impact of
their solutions is greater than the sum of the individual projects. It also gives you a great
overview of the challenges in a particular field ... as well as a sense of how systemic
change can really take place.
At this workshop, the finalists in two recent competitions on “Health for All” and
“Entrepreneuring Peace” gave summaries of their various projects, and then talked about
how the collaborative process was helping them accelerate innovation and improve impact.
The Said Business School at Oxford — photo Hutchinson
• There is much we can learn from this approach which applies to the process of
fostering innovation in New Zealand. The Ashoka Changemakers model spells out many
processes which could be used by the various grantmakers and foundations in fostering a
common and systemic approach in specific social sectors.
It’s certainly got me thinking: What if there was a source of philanthropic funding in New
Zealand aimed at fostering innovations, and all the project applications were opensourced
on a website in this way ... and the finalists challenged to work together on a common
approach. That would be something completely different from the current approach to
grantmaking. And it would be a way to blast through the whole concept of “patch
protection” — and to focus on how we might improve each other’s work for the common
good.
Resources
— “Everyone a Changemaker”, by Bill Drayton (2006) published in Innovations (MIT Press)
Winter 2006 ‐ download from http://www.ashoka.org/files/ChangemakerInnovations.pdf
— “Health for All” Mosaic at
http://proxied.changemakers.net/journal/300603/mosaic.cfm
— “Innovating Peace” Mosaic at
http://proxied.changemakers.net/journal/peace/mosaic.cfm
vivian Hutchinson
The Sheldonian Theatre at Oxford — photo Hutchinson
Skoll World Forum Opening
Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford
Tuesday 27th March 2007
• All this already ... and now the Forum starts
officially. The opening of the 2007 Skoll World
Forum was held in the heart of Oxford, — the
historic Sheldonian Theatre, designed by Wren in
1662 in the style of ancient Rome. This is the
building used by the Oxford Colleges for their
graduation ceremonies.
The Forum was launched with music from Pakistani
musician Salman Ahmad, who is a UN Goodwill
Ambassador for HIV/Aids, and the founder of South
Asia’s most popular rock band Junoon.
Junoon is made up of Lahore natives Ahmad and Ali
Azmat, who are Muslims who follow the Sufi
teachings of Islam, and New Yorker Brian O'Connell,
who is a Christian. Dubbed the “U2 of Pakistan” by
the New York Times, the rock band bridges East and
West, Islam and Christianity.
Resources.
— Streaming video of the “Skoll World Forum Opening Plenary” featuring music by Salman Ahmad, and
remarks from Stephan Chambers, Jeff Skoll, John Hood, Geoff Mulgan, Rushanara Ali, Charles Handy,
David Galenson, Muhammad Yunus and Her Majesty Queen Rania Al‐Abdullah of Jordan can be found at
http://streaming.oii.ox.ac.uk:554/ramgen/archive/sbs/skoll_2007/270307_opening.rm
— YouTube videos of Salman Ahmad’s performances at the 2007 Skoll World Forum can be
found at (part 1 of 3) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2nShfbxTC3s
(part 2 of 3) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KePun3h5E7k
(part 3 of 3) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q6rlr83oQgM
— YouTube video of Junoon Documentary (hosted by Susan Sarandon) can be found at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QhIkCH4sScM
vivian Hutchinson
• After opening remarks by Jeff Skoll and John Hood (the New Zealander who is also the
Vice Chancellor of the University of Oxford) the keynote speeches started. Geoff Mulgan
spoke on the main theme of this year’s conference: Social Innovation — what it is, why it
is important, what are the barriers and how can it be accelerated.
Mulgan is one of the people who started the Demos Think Tank
which has been a major intellectual influence on the Blair
government. Mulgan went on to become head of Strategy and Policy
in the Prime Minister’s office, but more recently has left government
to head up a revitalised Young Foundation. (This Foundation is
inspired by the work of the most successful British social
entrepreneur in the 20th century, Michael Young).
A major focus of Mulgan’s current work is research and promotion of
the process of social innovation. He has produced several reports on
this for the Young Foundation, and the latest version (now published
by the Skoll Centre in Oxford) is one of the best summaries of this
field that I have read so far.
• In this report, Mulgan points out that economists now estimate that 50%80% of
economic growth comes from innovation and new knowledge. While there are no reliable
figures, innovation appears to play an equally decisive role in social progress. Social
innovation also plays a decisive role in economic growth, and there are signs it will do so
even more in the future. Mulgan says that the key growth sectors of the 21st century
economy look set to be health, education and care ... accounting for around 2030% of
GDP.
But surprisingly little is known about social innovation compared to the vast amount of
research into innovation in business and science. After an extensive survey undertaken by
the Young Foundation, Mulgan says he found no systemic overviews of the field, no major
datasets or longterm analyses, and few signs of interest from the big foundations or
academic research funding bodies. He argues that this lack of knowledge impedes the
many institutions interested in this field, including the innovators themselves,
philanthropists, foundations and government.
• Mulgan’s speech was a call for a more concerted approach to social innovation. He
talked about “Social Silicon Valleys” to describe the future places and institutions that will
mobilise resources and energies to tackle social problems in ways that are comparable to
the investments in technology made in the original IT Silicon Valley in California.
“ Although social innovation happens all around us, many promising ideas are stillborn,
blocked by vested interests or otherwise marginalised. The competitive pressures that
drive innovation in commercial markets are blunted or absent in the social field and
the absence of institutions and funds devoted to social innovation means that too
often it is a matter of luck what comes to fruition or displace less effective
alternatives. As a result, many social problems remain more acute than they need to
be ...” — Geoff Mulgan
• I thought Mulgan’s presentation was an excellent start to the Forum. It was also
encouraging to hear the contributions of many earlier British social entrepreneurs (Robert
Owen, The Rochdale Pioneers, Michael Young) being namechecked, and also an emphasis
being put on the importance of historical British social movements (such as the co
operative movement) in fostering social innovations. The example of how various
movements worked together to create a climate for the abolition of slavery in the 1800s
was mentioned several times — the Skoll Forum was taking place during observances to
mark the 200th anniversary of the passing of legislation outlawing slavery in the British
Empire.
vivian Hutchinson
Resources.
— “Social Innovation: What It Is, Why It Matters and How It can be Accelerated”, by Geoff
Mulgan with Simon Tucker, Rushanara Ali and Ben Sanders (Oxford Said Business School
2007) http://www.sbs.ox.ac.uk/skoll/research/Short+papers/Social+Innovation.htm
— “The Process of Social Innovation”, by Geoff Mulgan, published in Innovations Spring
2006 (MIT Press) http://www.mitpressjournals.org/toc/itgg/1/2
— “Extreme Makeover”, by Geoff Mulgan, The Guardian 26 April 2006
http://society.guardian.co.uk/societyguardian/story/0,,1760923,00.html
— Good and Bad Power: The Ideals and Betrayals of Government by Geoff Mulgan (book
pub Allen Lane 2006) http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/asin/0713998822/nzsef‐20
Charles Handy speaking at the Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford. — photo Fruchterman
• I was certainly looking forward to hearing Charles Handy. I last heard him speaking on
“The Future of Work” at an Economics conference at the Findhorn Foundation in Scotland
in 1983. His speech at that time talked about the rise of entrepreneurship and self
employment as a growing sector of the economy ... and it directly influenced me to return
to New Zealand and start up the Skills of Enterprise business courses aimed at
unemployed people.
Since the 1980s, Charles Handy has gone on to become a prolific author, broadcaster and
speaker on the business circuit. And he has gained a welldeserved reputation as a social
philosopher. He’s just published his latest book, called “The New Philanthropists”, which
profiles 23 business people who are using their skills and resources to work for the
common good and for social change.
• In his speech, Handy gave some of the stories from his book and explained why he
thinks they are examples of an emerging new generation of practical philanthropy. Many of
the people he has profiled are young ... still in their 40s. They became wealthy from their
business interests at an early age, and now want to invest in a social vision. They are quite
different from earlier generations of philanthropists who put their money into buildings,
universities, hospitals or churches. They want to directly address the causes of social need.
And they want to be handson in doing it themselves.
Handy has hopes that this group of new philanthropists represents the seedlings of a new
type of capitalism ... where altruism and capitalism are not seen as wildly antagonistic to
each other. Handy: “Wouldn’t it be nice if one day all businesses saw themselves as social
enterprises?”
vivian Hutchinson
Resources.
— YouTube video of Charles’s Handy’s speech at the 2007 Skoll World Forum can be found at
(part 1 of 2) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCtVrOEPJYU
(part 2 of 2) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wvoLJY827Q
— “The New Philanthropists” by Charles Handy (book pub Heinemann 2006)
— “The Serious Business of Philanthropy” by Charles Handy in The Financial Times
September 19 2006 (Reader) http://www.ft.com/cms/s/d90131f8‐4803‐11db‐a42e‐
0000779e2340.html
—Charles Handy Interview on “The New Philanthropists” (Expertsonline)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KlvFTTRld0M
2006 Nobel Peace Prize recipient Muhammad Yunus — photo Fruchterman
• Muhammad Yunus has long been a hero of the social entrepreneur community for his
work in creating the Grameen Bank, and transforming the microcredit movement. Now
that he has been awarded the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize for this work, Yunus has been
virtually canonised by the social entrepreneur movement. Not that he is going to rest up
on the conference circuit as a “living saint” — Yunus has now put his hat into the political
ring in Bangladesh ... a move which was often commented on in the different workshops at
the Forum (with several participants expressing fears that the most prominent hero of the
social entrepreneur movement would be tainted by the political involvement).
“Many of the problems in the world remain unresolved because we continue to

interpret capitalism too narrowly. In this narrow interpretation we create a one‐
dimensional human being to play the role of entrepreneur. We insulate him from other
dimensions of life, such as, religious, emotional, political dimensions. He is dedicated
to one mission in his business life ‐‐‐‐ to maximize profit. He is supported by masses of
one‐dimensional human beings who back him up with their investment money to
achieve the same mission... I think things are going wrong not because of "market
failure". It is much deeper than that. Let us be brave and admit that it is because of
"conceptualisation failure". More specifically, it is the failure to capture the essence
of a human being in our theory.” — Dr. Muhammad Yunus
• In his presentation, Yunus described how he had been able to attract private capital to
fund a variety of socially driven businesses in Bangladesh. GrameenPhone, a forprofit
telecom outfit, is 51% owned by Norway's Telenor (TELN ). It works with the notforprofit
Grameen Telecom to provide bulk airtime for village phones which are built from simple
handsets and solar chargers. Funded by loans to individual women, these systems function
vivian Hutchinson
as pay phones in many rural areas. Nowadays the idea of a “village phone lady” is catching
on in other parts of Asia and Africa, with the local entrepreneur providing other associated
services using lowcost, hightech systems.
Another enterprise, Grameen Shakti, sells around 1,500 home solarpanel systems per
month throughout rural Bangladesh and is growing 15% a year without subsidies. Yunus is
also developing a partnership between Grameen and the French company Danone to make
a nutritious and inexpensive baby formula. Next on his list are lowcost eye care and rural
hospitals with videoconferencing between villagers and doctors in Dhaka.
Resources.
— YouTube video of Professor Muhammad Yunus speech to the 2007 Skoll World Forum can
be found at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3T6VWQZb1s
— “Banker to the Poor: Micro‐Lending and the Battle Against World Poverty” by
Muhammad Yunus (book pub 1999 PublicAffairs)
— “The Price of a Dream: The Story of the Grameen Bank” by David Bornstein (pub Oxford
University Press 2005) http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/asin/0195187490/nzsef‐20
— ABC News story on Professor Muhammad Yunus receiving the Nobel Peace Prize (2006)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQ030y37uMQ
— “Social Business Entrepreneurs Are the Solution” by Dr. Muhammad Yunus published by
Grameen Bank http://muhammadyunus.org/content/view/56/83/lang,en/
— Previews of Muhammad Yunus DVD created by Ashoka's Global Academy for Social
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IoqkEKTtIGg
Jeff Skoll speaking to the 2007 Skoll World Forum on Social Entrepreneurship
— photo Fruchterman
• Jeff Skoll himself is a stunning example of Charles Handy’s observation that we are
seeing a new breed of young philanthropist who wants to be proactively involved in social
change activities. He is not only the founder the Skoll Foundation, but also the cofounder
of eBay (the source of his wealth) and also the Los Angelesbased media company
Participant Productions. It’s his latest successful venture with Participant Productions that
tells you something of his own driving passion to be a social entrepreneur, and why he is
backing major conferences such as this Oxford Forum.
Jeff Skoll passionately believes that the world needs to hear many more stories about
people who are making a difference. He had himself been influenced by great films that
had highlighted social injustice, or told stories of people who had dedicated their lives to
righting wrongs ( films such as Ghandi, Schindler’s List, Erin Brockovich). His company
Participant Productions started with producing a series of short documentaries on Social
Entrepreneurs (The New Heroes, hosted by Robert Redford), and more recently has
vivian Hutchinson
produced a series of mainstream awardwinning feature films including Syriana, North
Country, Good Night and Good Luck, Fast Food Nation and the Al Gore documentary An
Inconvenient Truth.
• Speaking at this Forum Opening, Jeff Skoll said his main drive is to work to make social
entrepreneurs much more wellknown in mainstream society, and to see that this
particular variety of leadership and creativity is better valued. He paid tribute to 2006
Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus, and the fact that his gaining this prize has
lifted the profile of social entrepreneurship everywhere.
“ Social entrepreneurs have two kinds of power. The first is the power to make change
happen. And the second is the power to show what is possible and to inspire. Today,
wherever you find a social challenge at its worst, you will find a social entrepreneur.
They are everywhere where social problems call for innovation, inspiration and an
inability to take failure as an option. In the process, social entrepreneurs are replacing
cynicism with hope, optimism, energy and love ...” — Jeff Skoll
• Skoll also told the story of the spectacular success over the last year of the work of one
of this year’s nominees for the Nobel Peace Prize — former US Vice President Al Gore. The
film An Inconvenient Truth has been a great example of what can happen when an
inspiring story reaches a critical mass of people.
The documentary has very quickly contributed to changing the debate about climate
change around the world. It has won two Academy Awards, and become mandatory
viewing in schools in England, Scotland and throughout Scandinavia. Six legislative Bills
relating to climate change are now before the US House of Congress ... and on July 7th
this year, there will be a series of concerts on seven continents, called Live Earth, which
will bring the climate crisis message to a much more widespread audience.
Resources.
— YouTube video of Jeff Skoll’s speech at Exeter College to welcome Skoll Award
recipients can be found http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMn3Ws6bD1A
— YouTube video of Jeff Skoll’s Opening Speech at the 2007 Skoll World Forum can be
found at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QK876EzwhK8
— YouTube video of Jeff Skoll’s speech at the 2007 Skoll Awards can be found at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zy01Lr1AtzM
— YouTube video of Jeff Skoll video: Imagine the Headlines of the Future... can be found
at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ugpq‐F7i0mI
— Jeff Skoll is featured in a chapter in Charles Handy’s book “The New Philanthropists”
— “Moving Pictures” — profile of Jeff Skoll by Anya Kamenetz, in Fast Company Issue 108
September 2006 http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/108/open_moving‐
pictures.html
— Participant Productions can be found at http://participate.net
— “The New Heroes” PBS Documentary Series hosted by Robert Redford tells 12 dramatic
stories of social entrepreneurs who bring innovative, empowering solutions to intractable
social problems around the world. http://www.thenewheroes.org.
• Al Gore was the keynote speaker at last year’s Skoll World
Forum in Oxford, but he wasn’t speaking about climate change. He
was speaking a different focus of his own social entrepreneurship
— the challenge of fundamentally changing the world of venture
capital investment.
At last year’s Forum, Gore pointed out that while we are seeing
evidence of leading public companies adopting sustainable
business practices, there is still a long way to go to make
sustainability fully integrated into the way the world does business.
The main problem is the shortterm investment focus which still pervades the corporate
community, and which hinders longterm value creation. His example: 30 years ago in the
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US, the average stock holding period was 7 years ... now the average mutual fund turns
over its entire portfolio in less than 11 months.
“Society is facing serious global challenges such as HIV/Aids, global warming and water
scarcity. There is nothing new about this—what is new is the scale of these challenges.
Sustainable development will be the primary driver of industrial and economic change
over the next 50 years. More business leaders now agree that you can’t run a great
business without responding to these forces. Business has to be part of the solution
here: managers need to integrate sustainability values within their businesses.” — Al
Gore and David Blood
Gore has set up a new company, Generation Investments, with David Blood (the former
CEO of asset management at Goldman Sachs). The company aims to combine conventional
equity market analysis with much longerterm judgments about sustainability. This
venture has the potential to take the sustainability vision — which includes economic
growth, earth stewardship and social accountability — right into the heart of mainstream
investment practices. Generation Investments is doing this by investing in companies
which embrace longerterm opportunities, foster transparency, innovation, and eco
efficiency.
Resources.
— Al Gore and David Blood’s presentation to the 2006 Skoll World Forum is available on
Google Video at http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=‐1641773930133903355
— The Generation Investment Management Company Website is at
http://www.generationim.com/
— “For People and Planet” by Al Gore and David Blood Wall Street Journal 4 April 2006
available at http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0404‐23.htm
— An Inconvenient Truth / Al Gore Climate Crisis website is at
http://www.climatecrisis.net
— The Live Earth concerts (7 July 2007) website is at http://www.liveearth.org/
• It was somewhat surprising that the final
speaker of the Opening evening was Queen
Rania AlAbdullah of Jordan. She expressed
deep alarm at the way in which the Muslim
world and the West are looking at each other
with suspicion, fear, and prejudice ... and spoke
about the need for reconciliation and
collaboration between the West and Islam.
Drawing on the development of corporate social
responsibility in recent history, the Queen called
on corporations to take an active role in bridging this divide, a concept she is describing as
“corporate multicultural responsibility”.
"Our post‐global society is poverty‐stricken — with a new kind of poverty. Today, we

live in a world plagued by a poverty of multicultural knowledge, a poverty of
multicultural tolerance, a poverty of multicultural respect. We have all come to
recognise that social inequality is wrong; we must also appreciate that social
intolerance is wrong. Both hold us back. We all have a role to play in promoting
multicultural responsibility in our homes, schools, neighbourhoods, universities, places
of worship and places of work ...” — Queen Rania
Resources.
— YouTube video Her Majesty Queen Rania Al‐Abdullah of Jordan’s speech to the 2007
Skoll World Forum can be found at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E07Mtg6OV58
— “Jordan's Queen Rania calls on companies to bridge East‐West divide through Corporate
Multicultural Responsibility” speech notes on Queen Rania official website at
http://www.queenrania.jo/content/modulePopup.aspx?secID=&itemID=1425&ModuleID=pr
ess&ModuleOrigID=news
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Peter Gabriel at the 2007 Skoll World Forum Oxford University — photo Fruchterman
Launch of the WITNESS Hub
Nelson Mandela Theatre, Said Business School
Wednesday 28th March 2007
• This was another preconference session in which Peter Gabriel and Gillian Caldwell
launched their new YouTubestyle internet hub for the WITNESS project. WITNESS is a
project which distributes video cameras and other tools of communication to help people
record evidence of human rights abuses.
In 1988, Peter Gabriel was part of Amnesty International’s Human Rights Now! Tour. He
was struck by the stories he heard from survivors of human rights abuses and the lack of
attention these stories received. Gabriel had brought along one of the first camcorders and
realized the potential of video as a tool against the abuse ... the perpetrators were often
brought to justice when photographic or video evidence of abuses existed.
The independent nonprofit organization WITNESS was set up in 1992, not long after video
of Rodney King being assaulted by four Los Angeles police officers catalysed interest in the
use of video to bring attention to human rights issues. WITNESS is based in Brooklyn, New
York, and it’s Executive Director, Gillian Caldwell, has been active in several of the main
social entrepreneur networks.
WITNESS works with diverse groups around the world, carefully selecting partners based
on the strength of their human rights work, the clarity of their mission, and the ability of
video to enhance their campaigns. Currently, its partner groups are active in the fight for
the rights of indigenous people, for an end to systemic gender violence and the use of
children as soldiers, and for environmental protection where human communities are at
stake.
• “The Hub” is envisaged as a YouTubestyle forum where people can upload human
rights related footage video from handheld devices or laptops, to create communities of
support for action on the abuses that they witness. The Hub will be fully operational in
June this year.
Resources.
— YouTube video of Peter Gabriel’s speech to the 2007 Skoll World Forum can be found
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NB6ODAJ865E
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— WITNESS website is at www.witness.org
— Pilot project of The Hub is at http://globalvoicesonline.org/‐/human‐rights‐video/
— Peter Gabriel speaking on human rights and citizen journalism (TED Talks February
2006) available at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLuv7lsvWco
Jim Fruchterman introducing the Social Entrepreneurship in Human Rights Master Class
at the 2007 Skoll World Forum — photo Hutchinson
Innovators in Action: Social Entrepreneurs in Human Rights Master Class
Said Business School
• After attending the launch of The Hub, I went to the Social Entrepreneurs in Human
Rights Master Class being held at the Said Business School. It was being facilitated by Jim
Fruchterman of Benetech, and attended by Peter Gabriel and Gillian Caldwell of WITNESS,
Jeroo Billimoria of the Child Savings international project Aflatoun, Nina Smith of Rugmark
USA, and Karen Tse of International Bridges to Justice.
There weren’t very many people at this Master Class ... a great many other options were
going on at the same time. It gave me cause to reflect on the relative popularity of human
rightsbased initiatives at this Forum ... Gillian Caldwell put it succinctly when she
remarked that “...the human rights framework is an underrated resource in the advocacy
for social entrepreneurship.”
• Jim Fruchterman’s work is legendary in the leveraging of technical advances from
Silicon Valley to practically help people in the disability and human rights sectors. He was
named as a MacArthur Fellow in 2006. (This Fellowship —popularly known as the ‘genius’
award — is a $500,000, nostringsattached grant for individuals who have shown
exceptional creativity in their work and the promise to do more).
• Jeroo Billimoria is really a “serial entrepreneur”
who is most wellknown for her work in creating the
Childline network supporting street children
throughout India. She is now heading up Aflatoun, a
new international initiative teaching children their
rights and responsibilities, and in particular fostering
child savings schemes and teaching how to manage
money.
(Jeroo has contacted me since the Forum and is
trying to make contact with a social entrepreneur
who would be interested in establishing a branch of Aflatoun in New Zealand).
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• Also present at the workshop was Wilford Welch, a former American diplomat, who is
the author of a forthcoming book “The Tactics of Hope: Your Guide to Becoming a Social
Entrepreneur”.
Resources.
— short interview with Jim Fruchterman on his MacArthur Fellowship (2006) is at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nK_ppEe‐McE
— Jim Fruchterman ‐ Eye To Eye: An Online Library For The Blind (CBS News) is at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ti0HJFgdIPk
— The Aflatoun website is at http://www.aflatoun.org/index.php
• During the Human Rights Master Class, I was part of a smaller workshop group with
Karen Tse. Getting to know a bit more of her story was for me one of the highlights of the
Forum at Oxford. Tse leads the citizens group International Bridges to Justice, which
represents a powerful example and strategy for systemic social change. The group is
working to build fairer and more effective criminal justice systems around the world ...
starting in China, Vietnam and Cambodia, and now expanding its activities to Africa and
Latin America.
• International Bridges to Justice was founded in
2000 as a collaboration between lawyers,
academics, and business leaders. It promotes the
rule of law, good governance and equitable legal
rights for all citizens by ensuring the effective
implementation of existing criminal defence,
justice and human rights legislation. Operating
from the premise that just and reliable legal
systems translate into secure and stable societies,
the group works to strengthen the practical skills
of public defence lawyers, improving legal aid and
public defender infrastructure and increasing the
awareness of basic legal rights and processes among ordinary citizens.
Example. China remains one of the world's most obstinate abusers of basic human rights.
It didn't outlaw police torture and threats until 1996, when it also dictated for the first time
that defendants have the right to a lawyer and are to be presumed innocent until proven
guilty. In mainland China dissidents are routinely arrested and held incommunicado ... and
the Chinese judiciary is still locking up lawyers when they press too hard in defending the
accused.
International Bridges to Justice has brought public defender training to Chinese lawyers,
and has put them in touch with an international support network of other lawyers, which
can help provide mentoring on specific cases. The group has also been organizing
promotional campaigns aimed at ordinary citizens; and running awareness campaigns with
prosecutors, judges and police. Just four years ago, police stations in China featured
banners stating: “Confess: Better Treatment — Resist: Harsher Treatment!” Today, you
are more likely to see International Bridges to Justice posters announcing: “If You Are
Arrested, Know Your Rights!”
Resources.
— International Bridges to Justice brochure at http://ibj.org/IBJbrochure.pdf
— “The Power of Persuasion: Karen Tse Legal Rights Activist” By Elizabeth Weiss Green in
US News 30 July 2006 http://www.usnews.com/usnews/biztech/articles/060730/7tse.htm
— “The Dreamer” by Robyn Meredith in Forbes Magazine 18 April 2005
http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2005/0418/148_print.html
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Funding Ideas, Backing People
• The major Forum workshop sessions happened throughout the Said Business School
over the following two days. The workshops were panel sessions made up of short
speeches from leaders in the field, followed with comments and questions from the
audience. You can imagine, with seven major sessions happening at the same time, we
were spoilt for choice. I chose three sessions to focus on: Funding Ideas and Backing
People, Bringing Projects to Scale, and the Future of Philanthropy.
• This first panel explored funding strategies from multiple perspectives including
innovation from within foundations, private sector investment for public good, and non
profit venture investing. Panelists included JB Schram, founder of the College Summit, Ion
Yadigaroglu of Capricorn Investment, Edward Skloot of the Surdna Foundation, and
Jacqueline Novogratz of the Acument Fund. The session was facilitated by David Bornstein,
the author of the book on social entrepreneurs “How to Change the World” (which we have
given to all our Fellowship members in New Zealand).
• It was Jacqueline Novogratz, founder and CEO of the Acumen Fund
who most captured my attention at this workshop. Her description of
the strategy of investment behind the Acumen Fund is well worth
looking into further.
Acumen is a nonprofit global venture fund that seeks to demonstrate
that small amounts of philanthropic capital, combined “with large doses
of business acumen” can build thriving enterprises that serve the poor.
The Acumen Fund currently manages $20 million in investments in
South Asia and Eastern/Southern Africa, all focussed on delivering
affordable healthcare, water and housing to the poor. Acumen also
runs a Fellowship programme which is focussed on “building the next
generation of business leaders with an understanding of global issues
and poverty”.
• I introduced myself to David Bornstein after the workshop, as he
may be visiting New Zealand sometime in the next year. I offered to
arrange some meetings between him and the New Zealand Social
Entrepreneur Fellowship if he has the time during his visit.
Resources.
— Streaming video of this session "Funding Ideas, Backing People" featuring David Bornstein, JB
Schramm, Ion Yadigaroglu, Edward Skloot and Jacqueline Novogratz can be found at
http://streaming.oii.ox.ac.uk:554/ramgen/archive/sbs/skoll_2007/280307_option_1_am.rm
— Acumen Fund overview brochure can be downloaded from
http://www.acumenfund.org/News/Publications/documents/AcumenFund‐
Overview_email.pdf
— “Designing Change: How venture philanthropy fund Acumen uses design thinking to help
solve real‐world problems” by Jessi Hempel in Business Week 12 March 2007
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/07_11/b4025405.htm
— “How to Change the World: Social Entrepreneurs and the Power of New Ideas” by David
Bornstein (book pub 2004 by Oxford University Press)
— David Bornstein speaking to the Duke University Fuqua School of Business (2006)
http://stream.fuqua.duke.edu/Content/Groups/CASE/2006/bornstein/bornstein‐
20060126_300K.mov
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The New Zealanders at the Skoll World Forum — from left, vivian Hutchinson, Suzanne
Grant (of Waikato University Social Enterprise Studies) and Michelle St James (a former
NZ’er now working with philanthropy in Bermuda) — photo Hutchinson
• The Skoll Centre in Oxford has produced a paper on Social Investment by Jed
Emmerson, Tim Freundlich and Jim Fruchterman. It is a good basis to explore the whole
area of social investment, and I think will be a useful paper to give us a framework for
future discussions at the Social Innovation Investment Group.
The paper argues that the social entrepreneur movement has a critical need to address the
funding gaps in risktaking capital for social enterprises. The new enterprises need
investment if they are to grow and prove their innovations, and this needs to be
investment that shares the risks of the enterprise.
But a dearth of such capital is hampering the sector’s development ... and the authors of
this paper are arguing that new instruments and stakeholder relationships need to arise if
we are going to meet this challenge:
“ Put simply, between the traditional approach to financing non‐profit ventures

through grants, fundraising and limited use of debt, and the traditional approach to
financing for‐profit ventures through market‐rate private equity and debt, there is a
funding gap into which an increasing number of social enterprises are falling ...
Innovation in the allocation of capital for social change is needed if existing vehicles
are falling short of accomplishing our objectives.” — Emmerson, Freudlich and
Fruchterman
Resources.
— “Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained: Addressing the Critical Gaps in Risk‐Taking Capital
for Social Enterprise” by Jed Emmerson, Tim Freundlich and Jim Fruchterman, published
2006 by the Skoll Centre, Oxford University can be downloaded from
http://www.sbs.ox.ac.uk/skoll/research/Short+papers/Nothing+Ventured+Nothing+Gaine
d.htm
— Social Edge website discussion on this paper can be found at
http://www.socialedge.org/discussions/funding/nothing‐ventured‐nothing‐gained
— “Foundations: Essential and Missing in Action” interview with Jed Emmerson by Alliance
Extra March 2006 download from www.nzsef.org.nz/?sid=27
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The Problems and Perils of Scaling
Said Business School
• By the time I got to the “Problems and Perils of Scaling” workshop I was suffering from
information overload, or possibly even “hope fatigue”. This session was full to overflowing,
and it was obvious that “scaling up” to achieve systemic impact was one of the main
interests of the Oxford Forum. The workshop focussed on the personal stories and
examples of how specific enterprises went from a local project ... to national and
international success.
Workshop on the Problems and Perils of Scaling, with Asok Khosla, Mel Young and
Mechai Viravaidya — photo Hutchinson
• The panel group included Ashok Khosla, one of the world’s leading experts on
sustainable development, and a former director of the United Nations Environment
Programme. He is the founder of Development Alternatives, a Delhibased NGO which
promotes commercially viable and environmentally friendly technologies that support
livelihoods. He has spent decades developing and promoting innovations ranging from
village power plants using agricultural waste as fuel to mini factories that recycle paper
and local enterprises that make lowcost roofing tiles.
Mel Young was the cofounder of The Big Issue weekly magazine sold by homeless people
throughout Britain, and helped set up the International Network of Street Papers which
helps 100,000 homeless or longterm unemployed people every year. More recently, Mel
set up the Homeless World Cup annual soccer tournament (this year’s competition in
Copenhagen will see teams from 48 countries).
The competition isn’t just about soccer. It acts as a focus to encourage people to make
fundamental changes in their lives. A survey in 2005 showed that 77% of the players in
the Homeless World Cup have significantly improved their lives through employment,
housing, education and/or drug/alcohol treatment programs. A dozen players went on to
become semi professional or professional footballers or coaches.
“ Football is a great leveller, it connects people and is a universal sport for everyone. The
Homeless World Cup is able to change the scenery, challenge stereotyping and people who have
been spat at the week before are cheered by thousands and treated as soccer heroes during the
tournament. The feeling of belonging, challenge of working in a team, regaining a health‐
oriented attitude towards life, self‐esteem and last but not least the experience of fun is a
powerful combination to change a person's life.” — Mel Young
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Mechai Viravaidya, the third panelist, is the founder of the one of Thailand’s most
successful development organisations which has done pioneering work in family planning
and HIV/AIDS prevention. Mechai is popularly known as “Dr Condom” in Thailand for his
public role of promoting family planning (condoms are apparently often referred to as
“mechais” in Thai slang).
This social entrepreneur had many entertaining stories to share at the workshop ...
including holding condom blowing contests for school children, encouraging taxi cab drivers
to hand out condoms to their customers, and setting up a restaurant chain called
“Cabbages and Condoms” where condoms rather than mints are served after the meal.
This family planning campaign has been one of the most successful family planning
programmes in the modern era. The annual population growth in Thailand has dropped
from over 3% to 0.6%, and the average number of children per family has fallen from
seven to under two.
Resources.
— “Ashok Khosla: Mini enterprise leads to macro change” on the Infochangeindia website
at http://www.infochangeindia.org/changemakers16.jsp
— Homeless World Cup website is at http://www.homelessworldcup.org/
— Mechai Viravaidya profiled in Time magazine’s “Sixty Years of Asian Heroes” at
http://www.time.com/time/asia/2006/heroes/in_viravaidya.html
Moving Capital
• This session was happening at the same time as the “Scaling” workshop, but I got to
see it streamed over the internet at a later time (thanks to the free broadband services in
the local hotel). This workshop focussed on how social ventures can access different
sources of external capital to increase their impact.
• The main speaker here was John Elkington who is a prominent
British “thought leader” in the area of sustainability. His think tank,
called SustainAbility is currently working on a threeyear project
with the Skoll Foundation to increase partnerships between social
entrepreneurs and major corporations.
The workshop marked the release of a major report by
SustainAbility which surveyed over a hundred leading social
entrepreneurs on how they are working with the corporate sector,
and how they raise money for their new ventures.
“ A growing array of apparently insoluble socio‐economic, environmental and governance

challenges presses in on decision‐makers — including climate change, the risk of global
pandemics, the growing threat to natural resources like water and fisheries, and the ever‐
present issues of poverty and hunger. At a time when such challenges seem to narrow our
horizons, social entrepreneurs are creating a wealth of new opportunities. But to enjoy these
opportunities over the longer term, we must ensure real opportunity for a very much greater
proportion of the global population...” — John Elkington
The report concludes that for real system change to take place, we must focus on
government and public policy. Governments need to do more to shape public sector
targets, with tax incentives and pricing signals that ensure that markets can drive change
— so that the new social enterprises can reach their full potential.
• The SustainAbility report gave some sobering figures on the comparative size of the
social enterprise sector. Its rough estimate is that less than $200 million is going into
social enterprises worldwide, and most of this is coming from the Foundations sector. This
can be compared to the over $2 billion being invested into “clean technology” businesses
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worldwide, or the over $200 billion that is spent in philanthropy in the US alone. Elkington
told the workshop that even though social entrepreneurship is growing quickly, it is still a
very small field financially. His warning: “Are we growing a huge number of ventures that
may not be able to sustain themselves into the next stage of their evolution?”
Resources.
— Streaming video of this session “Moving Capital” featuring Jan Piercy, John Elkington, Penny
Newman, Tim Reith, Arthur Wood, and Michele Giddens can be found at
http://streaming.oii.ox.ac.uk:554/ramgen/archive/sbs/skoll_2007/280307_option_4_pm.rm
— “Growing Opportunity — Entrepreneurial Solutions to Insoluble problems” by
SustainAbility and the Skoll Foundation (2007) download from
http://www.sustainability.com/growing‐opportunity
— “Rising to the challenge?” by John Elkington in The Guardian 28 March 2007
http://environment.guardian.co.uk/climatechange/story/0,,2044046,00.html
— The SustainAbility / Skoll project website is at http://www.sustainability.com/insight/skoll.asp
• Several other Sustainability/Skoll Reports are available for download from their website.
These include a business primer on “scalable solutions”, a report profiling the “barefoot
billionaires” who are backing social entrepreneurs, and a quick global overview of leading
social entrepreneurs.
Resources.
http://www.sustainability.com/downloads_public/skoll_reports/Business_Primer.pdf
http://www.sustainability.com/downloads_public/skoll_reports/Barefoot_Billionaires.pdf
http://www.sustainability.com/downloads_public/skoll_reports/Hot_Spots_of_Social_Enterprise.pdf
The Future of Philanthropy
Thursday 29th March 2007
• This workshop session focused on just how far “creative” philanthropy can go to support
social innovation. Two of the panellists (Helmut Anheier and Lester Salamon) are the
leading academics in a field that looks at the voluntary sector and civil society from the
lens of social science. The other panellist, Mark Kramer, is the Managing Director of FSG
Social Impact Advisors.
• Helmut Anheier, Director of the UCLA Centre for Civil Society, set out his arguments for
a new approach to philanthropic engagement, which he calls Creative Philanthropy. He’s
written a book of the same name, which argues that endowed foundations have a unique
capability to spot innovative solutions to problems, to jumpstart and help sustain the
innovative process, and to help disseminate and implement the results of innovation. He
believes that Foundations will become more relevant as they learn to act themselves as
social entrepreneurs, as institutionbuilders, as risk absorbers and as mediators in different
social fields.
“Foundations are neither poor imitations of government nor the chosen

tools for quick fixes. They are something far more important: foundations
are the potential powerhouses of creative thinking and working that society
needs. We do not have a shortage or scarcity of resources in modern society.
What we have is a weakness in creating innovation, and in seeing innovation
through a process that leads to sustainable solutions. This is the area of
creative philanthropy where foundations are needed most...” — Helmut
Anheier
• Anheier remarked that one of the main characteristics of Creative Philanthropy is a
change in the relationship between foundation programmes and grantees. There is not an
emphasis on performance criteria and performance indicators and other elements of
control. There isn’t the requirement for grantees to fill in long forms or to write long
narratives on their work. There is much more of an emphasis on an ongoing dialogue and
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exchange between the foundation and grantee. This emphasis is on learning and
evaluating their shared contribution to the common good.
During the Forum, I discovered that this approach to grantmaking was very much the
style of the Skoll Foundations own relationship with its own grantees. Some of the people I
spoke to, who had received money from the Skoll Foundation, remarked on the difference:
The Foundation people came to them, they interviewed, checked facts, and filled out all
the paperwork, and when their reports were written, the Foundation sent them to the
grantee and asked: Did we get that right? The end result was that the people felt they
could focus a lot more on the job at hand ... and their meetings with Skoll as a funder
were seen as an opportunity to discuss and explore what was being learned, rather than as
some sort of accountability ritual.
• Mark Kramer of FSG Social Impact Advisers argued that we are on the cusp of a
generational change in which succeeding generations will not see a separation between
nonprofit and forprofit sectors. He remarked that this division seems very hard for us to
let go of. He also went on to suggest that we will not be looking to philanthropy or
government as the primary means of solving social problems.
“ We have a phenomenal non‐profit sector in America. It has a turnover of

about $1 trillion and about 7% of the workforce. It has grown at a
phenomenal rate over the past 50 years. But in every problem you would
care to look at — whether it is environmental, educational, or in social
welfare — the situation is the same or is getting worse. The problems are
becoming inescapable and the ways we have been addressing them are not
working. Social entrepreneurship is an interim step that has emerged as we
are trying to grapple with how to find more effective ways of addressing
our social problems...” — Mark Kramer
Mark Kramer has recently written a paper (coauthored with Michael Porter from the
Harvard Business School) in which he argues that the social value proposition of a business
will be the key competitive advantage in the near future. Businesses need to consider
social issues not just because they want to be good neighbours or citizens, and not just in
response to the activists, but “... because it will be the only way that they will succeed”.
Kramer argues that activists in the nonprofit sector underestimate the contribution that
the corporate world can make to systemic social change. He pointed to “The Equator
Principles” where nine global banks have got together to set social, safety and
environmental standards for major construction projects like dams and pipelines around
the world. It took a year for them to negotiate the standards, but as soon as they were put
in place, 75% of all major project financing in the world was under those standards. It has
now become impossible to build something without meeting those standards.
Resources.
— Video stream of this session “The Future of Philanthropy” featuring Helmut Anheimer, Mark
Kramer, Lester Salamon and Alex Nicholls can be found at
http://streaming.oii.ox.ac.uk:554/ramgen/archive/sbs/skoll_2007/290307_option_4_am.rm
— “Creative Philanthropy” by Helmut Anheier and Diana Leat (book pub 2006 Routledge)
— “From Charity to Creativity ‐ philanthropic foundations in the 21st century” by Helmut Anheier
and Diana Leat 2002 report for the Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust
http://www.lse.ac.uk/collections/pressAndInformationOffice/publications/books/2002/From_Char
ity_toCreativity.htm
— “Strategy and Society: The Link Between Competitive Advantage and Corporate Social
Responsibility” by Michael E. Porter and Mark R. Kramer in the Harvard Business Review
(December 2006) at
http://harvardbusinessonline.hbsp.harvard.edu/email/pdfs/Porter_Dec_2006.pdf
— The Equator Principles website is at http://www.equator‐principles.com/
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Miscellaneous Networking
• I met up briefly with Pamela Hartigan (Managing Director of the Genevabased Schwab
Foundation) when I arrived. Pamela has been to New Zealand and met with the Tindall
Foundation, and was a key influence in etsablishing both the Social Innovation Investment
Group and the New Zealand Social Entrepreneur Fellowship. Last year, I was invited to join
her meeting of social entrepreneurs that was held in conjunction with the World Economic
Forum in Davos, Switzerland. And many of the people that are members of the Schwab
Social Entrepreneur Fellowship were also present at this Oxford World Forum.
• Pamela is soon to publish a book on social entrepreneurship,
coauthored with John Elkington, which will be called “The Power
of Unreasonable People: How Entrepreneurs create markets to
change the world”.
• Just before the conference started, Pamela sent me her latest
paper which has just been published in Innovations, the quarterly
journal from MIT Press. The paper is coauthored by Klaus
Schwab, the Swiss academic and entrepreneur who started the
World Economic Forum in Davos thirty years ago, and it is a
coherent and useful argument for how government and businesses need to open up more
space for social innovation.
“Our fascination with these pragmatic visionaries and their organizations lies much
less in the goods and services they provide than in the catalytic role they play in
triggering innovations in the social sector. Like the business innovators who come up
with major innovations for the marketplace, social innovators are the mad scientists as
it were — working away in their organizations that act like social innovation
laboratories. They test and perfect different approaches, and when they come up
with the most effective and efficient ones with the greatest impact, it should be
government and the corporate sectors’ respective roles to celebrate the innovation,
take it up, learn from it, and help scale it so that all can benefit...” — Klaus Schwab
and Pamela Hartigan
Resources.
— "Social Innovators with a Business Case: Facing 21st Century Challenges One Market at
a Time" by Klaus Schwab and Pamela Hartigan
http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdfplus/10.1162/itgg.2006.1.4.7
— The Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship website is at
http://www.schwabfound.org/
• Another paper released around the time of the Forum was from
Sally Osberg, the CEO of the Skoll Foundation. It is a further attempt
at getting a clear definition of social entrepreneurship established. It
centers in on defining “entrepreneurship” itself, and how this is
expressed in both the business and social fields. The diversity of the
examples given in the paper might surprise you ... but it is just this
diversity that is reflected amongst the participants of this Oxford
Forum.
Osberg, and her coauthor Roger Martin, put an emphasis on
innovations that lead to “systemic social change” when discussing the
key differences between social entrepreneurs, social activists, and social service providers.
(In this, they have come to much the same conclusion as our own discussions in New
Zealand.)
• One of the drivers behind writing this paper is the concern (expressed several times at
the Skoll Forum) that the promise of social entrepreneurship is not being fulfilled because
too many “nonentrepreneurial” efforts are included in the definition. Martin and Osberg
are pushing for a much sharper definition of social entrepreneurship, in an effort to
determine the extent to which an activity is and is not “in the tent”.
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At the Forum, Bill Drayton remarked that this will always be a troublesome exercise ...
“ because social entrepreneurs are the sort of people who are always breaking down
barriers anyway ... and they will not accept any boundaries put on defining who they are”.
Resource.
— “Social Entrepreneurship: The Case for Definition” by Roger L. Martin & Sally Osberg in
Stanford Social Innovation Review (Spring 2007)
http://www.ssireview.org/articles/entry/social_entrepreneurship_the_case_for_definition/
• I missed the workshop session featuring Charles
Leadbeater (... there was just too much going on at the
same time), but I got to read his column in the Observer
newspaper, which was published during the time of the
Forum, and also his later article in the Social Enterprise
magazine. Leadbeater was one of the earliest influences on
my own awareness of this field. Ten years ago, he wrote a
small booklet called The Rise of the Social Entrepreneur
which was published by the British Think Tank Demos. This
booklet helped to popularise the term and brought social
entrepreneurship into the mainstream of public policy
debate.
Leadbeater’s booklet also had a significant influence on the “Third Way” movement within
the leadership of Labour Parties around the world. In New Zealand, in the early part of this
decade, these ideas were an influence on Social Development Minister Steve Maharey’s
interest in establishing a local Social Entrepreneurship Scheme (through the illfated
Community Employment Group).
• These days, Leadbeater is a “Visiting Fellow” at the Skoll Centre for Social
Entrepreneurship at Oxford University. So ... What has he learned about social
entrepreneurship after its first decade of significant growth? Well, he believes that the
movement has got quite a lot right, but also quite a lot wrong. For a start, he challenges
the current “hero” focus as a way that social entrepreneurship is being promoted:
“Social entrepreneurship needs to become a mass activity, not just the domain of
inspirational mavericks ... Entrepreneurship usually comes from teams, not heroic
individuals. Social entrepreneurs thrive on interdependence, learning and borrowing
resources from the public and private sectors.”
Leadbeater believes that the biggest challenge facing the social sector is how to scale up
its impact — and the social entrepreneur movement needs to embrace this challenge:
“Too many social entrepreneurs are still running inspiring but small schemes. Too few
can show how their inspirational new approaches have spread. Part of the reason is a
lack of both capital and management skills to expand larger organisations from smaller
roots. Opposition from entrenched bureaucracies and professionals is another factor.
But social entrepreneurs may have their biggest impact by being disruptive innovators,
opening up markets that bigger organisations cannot see...” — Charles Leadbeater
Resources.
— “Mainstreaming the Mavericks”, by Charles Leadbeater, The Observer 25 March 2007
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/business/story/0,,2041924,00.html
— “Whatever Happened to the Heroes?” by Charles Leadbeater in Social Enterprise
magazine Issue 57 (April 2007)
http://www.socialenterprisemag.co.uk/sem/features/detail/index.asp?id=198
— Charles Leadbeater on Innovation (TED Talk July 2005 in Oxford UK)
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/63
— “The Rise of the Social Entrepreneur” by Charles Leadbeater (pamphlet pub 1997 by
Demos Thinktank) can be downloaded from
http://www.demos.co.uk/publications/socialentrepreneur
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— Social Entrepreneurs — Special issue of The Jobs Letter (No.147, 27 June 2001) by
vivian Hutchinson can be downloaded from http://www.jobsletter.org.nz/jbl14700.htm
• Another participant at the Forum was Sir Ronald Cohen. He was one of the media
“stars” of businessled social entrepreneurship, and was profiled in the business sections of
several British newspapers during the time of the Oxford conference. Cohen is described as
having a major influence on the current government, and is considered a trusted member
of Chancellor (and leaderinwaiting) Gordon Brown's most trusted inner circle.
The Times calls Cohen “the grandfather of venture
capital in Europe”. He set up Apax Partners in 1972
and grew the firm into one of the world’s biggest
and most successful buyout groups, making him a
billionaire in the process. He retired from Apax on
his 60th birthday in 2005 and immediately started to
work on projects that would enable him to give
some of his and the industry’s wealth back to the
community.
Much of this work is centred around Bridges
Community Ventures, which describes itself as “a
private equity firm with a social mission”. Its
strategy is to invest only in the poorest 25 per cent
of the country. (The firm has made 13 investments,
sold three companies and seen five go under).
Cohen told The Observer how his worldview had changed since Gordon Brown asked him
to chair first the Social Investment Taskforce and, more recently, the Commission for
Unclaimed Assets.
“I came to understand that you could really change people's lives if you could manage to
connect the private sector way of doing things and the access to the capital markets with the
social challenges that communities are facing everywhere ...
“ I am convinced there is a wave of social entrepreneurship forming now that feels the same as
the wave of business entrepreneurship I felt when I started in 1972 ... We have in our hands the
ability to turn social investment into an asset class, in the same way we have turned private
equity into a mainstream asset class.” — Sir Ronald Cohen
• Cohen is also heading up a new initiative which will be Britain’s first “social bank”. It
aims to do this by investing about £250 million of the estimated £400 million in dormant
bank and building society accounts. Although the primary aim is to return the money to its
owners, the bank will use any outstanding money to fund voluntary organisations and
social enterprises “... to tackle social and financial exclusion”.
Resources.
— Bridges Community Ventures website is at http://www.bridgesventures.com/
— “Bridging the Great Divide" by Nick Mathiason on The Observer 18 March 2007
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/print/0,,329749132‐102271,00.html
— “Billionaire sets up ‘mission’ to help nation’s poorest” by Siobhan Kennedy in The
Times 31 March 2007
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/banking_and_finance/ar
ticle1593826.ece
vivian Hutchinson
Skoll Foundation Awards Ceremony
Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford
• Back at the Sheldonian, we had an evening dedicated to celebrating the stories of many
of the leading social entrepreneurs gathered at this Forum. The evening started with music
from the Pakistani musician Salman Ahmad, followed by speeches from Jeff Skoll,
Muhammad Yunus and Peter Gabriel.
The 2007 Skoll Awards were then presented to ten recipients who will each receive $1
million, over the next three years, to target social issues in need of urgent attention and to
bring their projects “to scale”.
What struck me during the Awards ceremony was the relative youth of so many of these
recipients — many were in their 30s and 40s. Their stories and projects so far are already
extremely successful, and there is obviously such great potential still ahead for all of them.
— Vicky Colbert of the Foundation Escuela Nueva, which started in Columbia fostering
education for underserved children through a more flexible approach and stronger
school‐community ties. This has grown into an international movement reaching 5
million pupils in various Latin American countries, Uganda, and the Philippines.
— Craig and Mark Kielburger of Free The Children. They started this group in their
early teens as a classroom fundraiser and grew it to become an international
organization with 1000 chapters in schools across the US and Canada fighting poverty,
exploitation and powerlessness among children around the world.
— Sebastien Marot of Friends International, an initiative to take Cambodian kids off
the streets and help them reintegrate society.
Sebastion Marot (centre) of Friends International receives his 2007 Skoll Award, with
Sally Osberg, Peter Gabriel, Muhammad Yunus and Jeff Skoll — photo Fruchterman
— Susan Burns and Mathis Wackernagel of the Global Footprint Network, developers
of the Ecological Footprint, a tool that tracks the extent to which human demand on
nature exceeds what the planet can regenerate. This measure, applied by countries,
hundreds of cities and organizations across the world, has become a leading
sustainability indicator.
— Joe Madiath of Gram Vikas, an organization helping develop the state of Orissa, one
of the poorest regions in India.
— William Strickland of the Manchester Bidwell Corporation, which introduces young
people in poor urban environments to arts and career education.
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— Roshaneh Zafar of the Kashf Foundation focusing on microfinance for women in
Pakistan. Started in 1996, the Foundation made 228,000 loans in 2006, has 135,000
clients and a recovery rate of 99.9 percent.
— Rupert Howes of the Marine Stewardship Council, focusing on reversing the decline
in global fishing stocks through a marine certification and an eco‐labeling program.
— Dan Viederman of Verité, which works on improving working conditions around the
world.
— Dorothy Stoneman of YouthBuild USA, an alternative school where dropout youths
re‐enrol, complete high school, and at the same time work to build affordable housing
for the homeless.
• The evening finished with two songs from Monica Yunus (daughter of Muhammad) who
is a promising young soprano based at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. The Forum
participants then went on to a celebration and reception hosted in a marque at Trinity
College.
Resources.
— Streaming video of the “Skoll Foundation Awards Ceremony” featuring Jeff Skoll and Sally Osberg
with Peter Gabriel, Muhammad Yunus, Salman Ahmad and Monica Yunus can be found at
http://streaming.oii.ox.ac.uk:554/ramgen/archive/sbs/skoll_2007/280307_awards.rm
— YouTube video of the ten recipients of the 2007 Skoll Awards for Social
Entrepreneurship can be found at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=‐KKByRF6GA0
— short profiles of the 10 grantees can be read at http://www.skollfoundation.org:80/grantees/2007.asp
Monica Yunus singing at the 2007 Skoll Foundation Awards Ceremony — photo
Fruchterman
• Some Quotes from the Skoll Forum:
“Every truth passes through three stages. First it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently
opposed. Third it is accepted as being self‐evident.”
— Arthur Schopenhauer, philosopher
“There is no change without individuals, and nothing sustained without institutions.”

— Jean Monnet, the architect of the European Union
“Live like you will die tomorrow, but learn like you expect to live forever.”
— Mahatma Ghandi
“ It’s amazing what you can achieve if you don’t care who gets the credit.”
— Harry Truman, US President
vivian Hutchinson
Closing Sessions of Skoll World Forum
Thursday 29th March 2007
• Larry Brilliant was the final keynote speaker giving his reflections as a pioneer in social
innovation. His presentation was challenging and inspiring, and something of a jolt back to
“big picture” thinking after hearing so many inspiring local stories. If you watch just one of
the pieces of video from this Forum ... make it this one.
Brilliant has long been a folk hero from the same loose network of American counter
cultural activists and entrepreneurs that include the likes of Ram Dass, Wavy Gravy,
Stewart Brand, Howard Rheingold and Paul Hawken. He is a doctor and a former professor
of epidemiology who set up the Seva Foundation
which has performed 2 million free sightrestoring
eye operations in India and Nepal. He helped run
the WHO smallpox eradication program in India,
Nepal, and Bangladesh and was part of the Global
Commission which certified that smallpox had
been eradicated in the world.
As a technology leader, Brilliant was a founder of
the world’s first online community, The WELL,
and has been CEO of two public hitech
corporations (SoftNet Systems Inc. and Network
Technologies), and most recently he founded the
WiFi company, Cometa.
Larry Brilliant was 2006 recipient of the TED
Prize, which grants him “one wish to change the
world” (... he is setting up a global warning
system to track the spread of infectious
diseases). And just last year, he was appointed
Executive Director of Google.org, the new
philanthropic arm of the Google company. So all
eyes are on just what he is going to do next ....
• Brilliant started his speech with a short clip from a 1958 movie by Frank Capra, "The
Unchained Goddess". The film contained a description of the causes of global warming,
complete with images of melting Arctic icecaps and maps of rising sea levels inundating
the southern regions of the US ... eerily similar to Al Gore’s more recent film “An
Inconvenient Truth”. Brilliant: “So in 1958 we knew about global warming — should we
feel good or bad that 50 years of foreknowledge accomplished so little?”
He then went on to list some of the Megatrends facing the current generation of social
entrepreneurs:
— increasing global warming ... which has its gravest effects on the poorest and most
vulnerable members of humanity
— increasing population levels ... expected to level out at over 9 billion people
— increasing urbanization ... we went past the tipping point this year with 50 percent
of the world population now living in cities
— increasing desertification, loss of farming land etc
— increasing animal consumption
— increasing growth of technology, which is also having a downside in the growth of
bio‐weapons
— increasing globalization, which has big winners and bigger losers.
• Brilliant pointed out that today, the world is more diverse and more unfair than it has
ever been in human history. One percent of world population owns 40% of all goods and
services (he quoted Bill Clinton, who recently remarked: ”This situation is unprecedented,
unequal, unfair and unstable”). And the situation will get increasingly instable as global TV,
vivian Hutchinson
the internet and new media continue to expose the inequalities in life experiences and
people’s expectations.
Brilliant drew out the “case for pessimism” in many areas ... water and other resource
wars, sectarian conflicts, refugee crises, an increasing number and scale of weather
related disasters, and newly emergent disease patterns. Climate change will put all the
social entrepreneurship successes of things like microcredit into perspective. With the
graphics provided by Google Earth, he “navigated” a map of Asia to show how
deforestation and global warming will combine to raise seas levels and displace 100 million
people in Bangladesh alone.
• But Brilliant also felt there is plenty of cause for optimism. He shared his personal story
of wandering the Asian hippy trail in the 1960s before his guru sent him off to help lead
the fight to eradicate Smallpox on earth. Smallpox has been the worst disease in human
history — it killed half a billion people in the 20th century alone, which is more than all the
wars in history. Ending Smallpox involved an immense collaboration between the World
Health Organisation, governments, public and private health officials, and teams of
volunteers. In India, Brilliant supervised thousands of workers who tracked down cases of
smallpox, and kept visiting every household to ensure that the virus was quarantined. He
suggests that the fact that we have conquered Smallpox “should make our species proud”,
and it should also give us hope when we take on similar huge systemic challenges as
global warming, or the many other megatrends that he had listed.
• As the new director of Google.org, Brilliant will be helping spend $1.1 billion of the
assets of the worldleading company on addressing the sort of megatrends that he has
described. Google.org is essentially a network that includes both a charitable foundation
with a $90 million endowment, and also other forms of social investing (not unlike those
being promoted by venture capitalists like Sir Ronald Cohen).
When they announced the establishment of the Google.org Foundation in 2005, Google
founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin promised shareholders they will make a social impact
that will eventually “eclipse Google itself” by tackling the world's problems. Brilliant: “ In
10 years, I'd like people to say Google changed the world less for its search engine than
for the way in which it changed philanthropy to make the world a better place.”
Resources.
— Streaming video of this session “Reflections from a Pioneer in Social Innovation”
featuring Larry Brilliant can be found at
http://streaming.oii.ox.ac.uk:554/ramgen/archive/sbs/skoll_2007/290307_closing_1.rm
— YouTube video of Larry Brilliant’s speech to the 2007 Skoll World Forum can be found at
(part 1 of 3) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBuIHX11yj4
(part 2 of 3) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y0rsfIE274Q
(part 3 of 3) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6mZndZSmAw
— “Google's Brilliant Philanthropist” by Jessi Hempelin in Business Week 22 February 2006
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/feb2006/tc20060222_088020.htm
— “Dr Brilliant Vs. the Devil of Ambition” by Andrew French in Fast Company Issue 39
September 2000 http://www.fastcompany.com/online/39/brilliant.html
— “The Health of Humanity” by Larry Brilliant (2006 Sanford S. Elberg Lecturer in
International Studies ‐ UC Berkeley http://globetrotter.berkeley.edu/Elberg/Brilliant/
— Larry Brilliant talking to the TED Forum January 2007 on the successful WHO campaign
to eradicate Smallpox, and then unveiling his TED Prize wish ‐ to build a global system
that detects each new disease or disaster as it emerges or occurs.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNhiHf84P9c
• The 2007 Skoll World Forum was completed by wrapup speeches by Bill Drayton, and
Ed Millibrand, the British Cabinet Minister.
Bill Drayton reinforced what he felt was the changing focus of the social entrepreneur
movement: “We used to have a small elite, now we need to get everyone involved in
changemaking, and figure out ways to think and work together in a way that builds on our
individual entrepreneurial spirit...”
vivian Hutchinson
Drayton pointed out that governments and the universities are “the last remaining pre
modern institutions” to embrace the entrepreneurship challenge. The social entrepreneurs
at this Forum would be an essential part of helping them make this transition.
Ed Milibrand and Bill Drayton addressing the final session of the Skoll Oxford World Forum —
photo Hutchinson
• Ed Milibrant heads up Office for the Third Sector which has responsibility for
government policy affecting social enterprise. He recognises the challenge that social
enterprises bring to both the private and public sectors:
“ They are at the vanguard of change in both. To the private sector, the challenge is
to put ethical values at the heart of their business and be a responsible member of the
community. To the public sector, the challenge is to deliver public services in a
different way, using the skills and expertise of users and frontline workers...” — Ed
Milibrand, UK Minister of the Third Sector
Milibrand says that a major focus of his government’s policy is to simply recognise and
spread the word that social enterprises do exist. His research showed that only about a
quarter of British people know what they are, even though it was estimated that there are
over 55,000 businesses in Britain that fit the government’s definition of a social enterprise.
In November 2006, the British government launched a major 75page “Social Enterprise
Action Plan” that aims to “open the door to thousands more such enterprises” by:
— fostering a culture of social enterprise, embedding the change that is already
underway, especially through inspiring the next generation to start thinking about the
social impact of business
— improving business advice, information and support available to social enterprises
— tackling the barriers to access to finance that restrict the growth of social
enterprises
— enabling social enterprises to work effectively with government to develop policy in
the areas of expertise
• After some closing comments from John Elkington, and from some of the Skoll Award
winning social entrepreneurs ... the 2007 Skoll World Forum was over!
Resources.
— Streaming video of the session “Supporting More Social Innovation” featuring John
Elkington, Bill Drayton and Ed Milliband can be found at
— Office for the Third Sector “Social Enterprise Action Plan” (2006) can be downloaded
from http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/third_sector/social_enterprise/action_plan/
— Streaming video of the session “Social Innovation: Where do we go from here” featuring
Roger Martin, Roshaneh Zafar, Martin Fisher, Taddy Blecher, and Mindy Lubber can be
found at
vivian Hutchinson
London Meetings
• For the four days after the Oxford Forum I stayed in London to followup on connections
made at the conference and to explore some other projects further.
Gaia Foundation
• Ed Posey and Liz Hosken are a couple of “active citizens” and philanthropists based in
Hampstead. We had last met during the New Economics conference held in Scotland in
1984. At that time, they were just establishing The Business Network, which was one of
the first organisations promoting social and environmental responsibility in business.
Since then, Ed and Liz have established the Gaia Foundation, and their Hampstead home
— now known as Gaia House — has become a seeding point and informal meeting place
for many of the leading UKbased activists from environment and development
organisations. The Foundation has taken a leading role in supporting indigenous activists
including Professor Wangari Maathai (the Nobel Peace Laureate from Kenya), Vandana
Shiva from India, Tewolde Gebre Egzhiabher from Ethiopia, Martín von Hildebrand from
Colombia, José Lutzenberger from Brazil and Chico Mendes (the indigenous leader who
was assassinated in Brazil).
• The couple invited me to attend a small public talk in
Hampstead by Martín von Hildebrand, the leader of many
development projects with indigenous people in the Columbian
Amazon.
Hildebrand led the campaign to include significant indigenous
rights within Colombia’s 1991 political Constitution. The
Columbian Constitution explicitly recognises the cultural
diversity of the Colombian nation and the rights of indigenous
peoples to participate in the design and management of their
own development, health and education programmes. It also
recognizes the right of indigenous communities to collectively
administer their own territories.
Over the last 17 years, these communities have developed innovative processes of self
governance directed by shamans and driven by indigenous thought. Hildebrand’s COAMA
programme focuses on reviving their diverse and ecologically centred collective
governance systems, using elements from the western industrial world that do not
compromise their autonomy. Thanks largely to these efforts, the indigenous communities
in the Colombian Amazon are now selfmanaging a territory larger than the size of the
United Kingdom.
The obvious improvements in Columbia through this indigenous selfdevelopment have
become the envy of many other South American countries ... and has also inspired similar
groups in Africa to follow the COAMA methods. In 1999, Hildebrand and COAMA received
the Right Livelihood Award (sometimes called the alternative Nobel Prize) for this ground
breaking work.
• Meeting Martín von Hildebrand and hearing his presentation has given me quite a bit
to reflect on when comparing his story to the New Zealand experience of Maori sovereignty
and economic development. It is interesting for me to realise that so much of my own
thinking on indigenous issues has been conditioned by our local debates on the Waitangi
Treaty and the emphasis on “partnership” relationships between our majority culture and
tangata whenua. This is in contrast to the Columbian Amazon story which has involved
promoting grassroots community efforts to protect critical ecosystems, such as forests,
watersheds and river basins, whilst working to empower local communities to take control
and develop their own resources and livelihoods.
vivian Hutchinson
• The Gaia Foundation has been promoting the concept of “Earth Jurisprudence” based
on the visionary work of the philosopher Thomas Berry. Their view is that our legal
systems, and the corresponding human jurisprudences upon which they are based,
continually promote the interest of the human community while affording no real
protection to other species, or to the planet itself. The Gaia Foundation asks us to imagine
another legal system where the planet and all of its species have rights – and they have
those rights by virtue of their existence as component members of a single Earth
community.
“ The dominant legal philosophies and laws both reflect and perpetuate the prevailing
worldview that the Earth is merely a collection of 'resources' or objects which human
beings are entitled to exploit for their exclusive benefit. A new Earth Law ‐ or Earth
jurisprudence ‐ is essential if global human society is to achieve the radical shift in
beliefs and attitudes that will be necessary to save the planet from ecological
disaster.” — The Gaia Foundation
Resources.
— The website for The Gaia Foundation is at http://www.gaiafoundation.org/
— profile of Coama for the Right Livelihood Awards can be found at
http://www.rightlivelihood.org/recip/coama.htm
— The Gaia Foundation’s Earth Jurisprudence website can be found at
http://www.earthjurisprudence.org/
London School for Social Entrepreneurs
• I had an appointment with Alastair Wilson, the Chief Executive of the School for Social
Entrepreneurs, which is based in Bethnal Green in the East End of London. I was interested
in finding out more about how this school operates ... and from the brochures I picked up
at the Skoll Forum, I could see that their approach to learning and enterprise facilitation
was very similar to the style of the “Skills of Enterprise” business courses I had set up for
unemployed people in New Zealand in the 1980s.
Alastair Wilson, Chief Executive of the School for Social Entrepreneurs, at Bethnal Green, in
the East End of London — photo Hutchinson
The Skills of Enterprise business courses were different from mainstream Polytech business
courses because of their action learning approach. We didn’t just teach people how to set
up a business ... we taught them how to set up their business. Our courses were half work
and half study — and there were no certificates or accreditations involved other than
having a viable business running at the end of the course, or the participant taking the
decision not to go into business because of what they had learned.
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I could see that the School for Social Entrepreneurs was following a similar approach to
education, which they were also calling “action learning”.
• Each student on the SSE programme is chosen on the basis of their life experience,
rather than their qualifications. They are each leading or establishing a new project or
organisation, and have shown themselves to be “... driven, committed, persistent,
engaged with the community they are aiming to serve, prone to action, and pragmatic”.
The SSE programme is a year long, and the
sessions at the School are held one day a
week. It’s not a course of instruction ... but
more of a learning community where the
diverse students are encouraged to help one
another with their objectives. The School’s
“facilitators” are able to get alongside the
students providing information and guidance
on a “just in time” basis.
• Gaining access to the networks of
existing social entrepreneurs is obviously one of the main benefits cited by the students at
this School. The SSE has a huge network of highprofile social entrepreneurs to call upon
(from John Bird, founder of The Big Issue newspapers for homeless, to Tim Smit, the man
behind The Eden Project). The students are able to interrogate these “expert witnesses” to
find out exactly what they did, how they did it, what the results have been and what they
have learned.
The School has been operating for ten years and the 250 students so far have become part
of a SSE Fellowship Network which plays an active part in the staff team, on the Trustee
Board, as expert witnesses, and in helping develop new services. (The Chief Executive
Alastair Wilson himself is a former graduate of the School).
• The School for Social Entrepreneurs has recently been evaluated by the New Economics
Foundation. Its October 2006 report finds that the SSE has a unique approach based on
“the depth and duration of support, the high levels of personal support and the
inspirational mixture of people and lasting support networks.”
The report shows that organisations established by SSE Fellows are over oneandahalf
times more likely to be in existence after eight years than conventional businesses. Each
social enterprise established by the Fellows has created an average of five jobs (and a
small proportion have created more than 20 jobs). The New Economics Foundation has
calculated that for every £10,000 its takes to train a student at the School for Social
Entrepreneurs, the return to the community is £100,000.
• The SSE has now started franchising its methods and approach — with similar Schools
for Social Entrepreneurs now operating in Ireland, East and West Midlands, Scotland and
Cornwall. And it looks as though they are starting to go international ... with discussions
currently taking place for a similar School to be set up in Sydney, Australia.
Resources.
— The website for the London School for Social Entrepreneurs is http://www.sse.org.uk/
— “Passion in Action” by Mira Katbamna in The Guardian 12 December 2006
http://education.guardian.co.uk/higher/news/story/0,,1969691,00.html
vivian Hutchinson
The Young Foundation
• The School for Social Entrepreneurs was one of the last projects
established in 1997 by Michael Young, later known as Lord
Dartington, who is credited with being Britain’s most prolific and
successful social entrepreneur of the 20th Century.
At the end of World War II, at the early age of 29, Michael Young
drafted the 1945 Labour Party manifesto “Let Us Face The Future”,
which helped bring Atlee’s reforming Labour government to power.
He worked closely with Aneurin Bevan in the Labour government
of 1945 to 1951, where he became convinced that successful
social innovation was far more likely to come from individuals and
communities than from the public sector.
Young set up his Institute of Community Studies at Bethnal Green
in London’s East End. From this base, he gave birth to more than
fifty organisations devoted to a huge diversity of social projects.
These included establishing the Consumers' Association (1957)
and their magazine Which?, the Economic and Social Research
Council (1965), the Open University (1968), International Alert (1980), the University of
the Third Age (1982) and Language Line (1990).
Young was once described as a shaman who sowed “dragons teeth”, then moved on while
great organisations sprung up in his stead. When interviewed by Charles Handy (in his
1999 book The New Alchemists) Young simply remarked: “I can’t stop thinking of what
appear to be worthwhile ideas. They seem so obvious.”
At the Skoll World Forum, one speaker remembered Michael Young as a social
entrepreneur who always took “No” as a question, and who actively sought out objections
to his ideas as a method of refining his plans and proposals.
Resources.
— “Michael Young 1915‐2002: Social Entrepreneur” by vivian Hutchinson in The Jobs
Letter No.161 (14 February 2002) at http://www.jobsletter.org.nz/jbl16110.htm
— “Michael Young: Social Entrepreneur” by Asa Briggs (book pub 2001 by Palgrave
Macmillan) http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/asin/0333750233/nzsef‐20
School for Social Entrepreneurs, Bethnal Green, London — the base for Michael Young’s
Institute of Community Studies, from which he developed his extraordinary range of
social innovations — photo Hutchinson
vivian Hutchinson
UnLtd: The Foundation Supporting Social Entrepreneurs
• On my last day in London, I visited the headquarters of UnLtd: the Foundation for Social
Entrepreneurs. This Foundation was established in 2000 by a consortium of groups
(including Ashoka / Changemakers and the School for Social Entrepreneurs) who
successfully bid for and were awarded £100 million from the UK Millennium Awards
Endowment (part of the National Lottery).
UnLtd gives financial support to individuals who want to make a
difference. They don’t fund organisations. The UnLtd awards are enabling
emerging social entrepreneurs to tackle a wide variety of issues such as
racism, the minimum wage, social exclusion, hungry schoolchildren and food poverty in
inner cities.
UnLtd offers two levels of award: The first level gives between £500 and £5,000 to
individuals or informal groups of people who have an idea and want help getting it off the
ground. The second level (of between £10,000 and £20,000) is for supporting key people
or paying for the living expenses of the award winners to enable them to devote more time
to their projects.
UnLtd also runs a UKwide Fellowship of the people who have received their awards, and
undertakes research into the impact of social entrepreneurship on society.
Resources.
— The website for the UnLtd: The Foundation for Social Entrepreneurs can be found at
http://www.sse.org.uk
— The Guardian UnLtd Social Entrepreneur Awards
http://society.guardian.co.uk/unlimitedvision/0,,1776158,00.html
— “Everyday Legends: The Ordinary People Changing Our World, the Stories of 20 Great
UK Social Entrepreneurs” by Justine C. Law, James J. Baderman (book pub 2006 by WW
Publishing) http://www.amazon.co.uk/Everyday‐Legends‐Ordinary‐Changing‐
Entrepreneurs/dp/0955013216/
• My interest in visiting UnLtd wasn’t so much about their funding programme — which
was extraordinary enough — but to follow up on a conversation I had with Cliff Prior,
UnLtd’s Chief Executive, when we were having dinner during the Skoll Forum.
I had mentioned a project we were exploring with the New Zealand ChangeMakers 5105
10 group which is to establish a microphilanthropy trading website. The idea is to provide
a website where the network of people involved with ChangeMakers can be connected with
the funding requests from local groups and organisations. Such a website (modelled on the
popular NZ trading site TradeMe) would be a useful addition to the tools for generosity in
our country, and could be especially useful as a fundraiser for smaller grant and donation
requirements for individuals and community organisations.
Cliff Prior told me that UnLtd were pursuing much the same idea as a way of supporting
the people and projects involved in their own network of social entrepreneurs. He put me
in touch with their website developer, who was able to point me towards several existing
examples of websites that were pursuing a similar strategy.
Some of these philanthropy marketplace websites include:

— Just Giving at http://www.justgiving.com/
— Generous Giving http://www.generousgiving.org/index.asp
— Fundable at http://www.fundable.org/
— Kiva at http://www.kiva.org/
— Global Giving at http://www.globalgiving.com/
vivian Hutchinson
vivian Hutchinson in the Park at Blenheim Palace, Woodstock, near Oxford April 2007
• Well, that’s my notes from the week at the Oxford and from my time in London. There
was so much going on at this World Forum that I would imagine that there could be 700
completely different reports of what happened and 700 different maps of connections to
inspiring people, ideas and projects.
• As I was writing up my notes in a London hotel, I was struck by the contrast between
the positivity generated by this global gathering ... and the much less hopeful headlines
appearing in the daily British newspapers.
During the time of this Forum, the OECD reported that aid from Western developed
countries to tackle global poverty had fallen by 5% last year, which was the first time that
the level of aid had dropped in a decade. This was because the world’s richest countries
were basically reneging on their Gleneagles pledges to give an extra $50 billion in financial
assistance by 2010. (Remember Bob Geldof and Bono’s Live8 concerts?)
Also during the Forum, a report was released on Britain’s child poverty statistics. The latest
government figures show that the number of children officially living in poverty in Britain
has risen by 200,000 to 3.8 million children. These new figures mark the end of a
sustained period of falling poverty since statistics were first collated in 1961. They also
bring a bit of “reality” back to Blair and Brown’s ambitious social promise that they will
abolish all child poverty in the UK by 2020.
These reports are a notsogentle reminder of just how far we still have to go. Larry
Brilliant’s inspiring journey in ending Smallpox may prove to be a walk in the park
compared the social justice struggle of ending the widening gap between rich and poor.
• Being my first Skoll Forum, I had no real way of comparing just how the social
entrepreneur movement, at this series of annual gatherings, was evolving its own sense of
balance between “hype” and “reality”. I was interested to read the following postForum
comment on a Social Edge Blog by Dennis Whittle, the founder and Chairman of
GlobalGiving:
“ Around 2001 there was a Cambrian explosion of ideas [on social entrepreneurship],
and conferences were all about who had the best idea — and too often about why
other people's ideas were dumb or inferior. Over the next couple of years, several of
the people with ideas actually launched real initiatives, with great hopes and fanfare
and excitement and hoopla, and often hyperbole. The conferences during those years
were dominated by the swaggering of those people launching these start‐ups.
vivian Hutchinson
“ [But] many of us have been through the wringer. We are making great progress now,
but the last few years have been full of setbacks and reversals and S‐turns. All of
which have served to make us a lot more humble — and a lot more interested in
reaching out to others to tell our stories and hear theirs in return. I think we all
realize now that there is no silver bullet in this field — no “best idea.” Instead, we
need — and are forming — a community of good ideas, and of good people. The way
forward is through this community...” — Dennis Whittle
• I think this is a community we should be keeping in touch with ... and we should
endeavour to maintain a New Zealand presence at these World Forums at Oxford. In future
years I would like to try and ensure that both a member of our Social Innovation
Investment Group and a member of the Social Entrepreneur Fellowship are able to attend.
There is certainly many advantages to being on the spot, making connections with a huge
diverse network, being within the dialogue, and having the time to think things through —
away from home projects and responsibilities.
• But beyond this — bearing in mind all the carbonmiles involved in getting New
Zealanders over to the other side of the world — perhaps we could also work with the Skoll
Foundation or the Social Edge people to convene a satellite summit gathering at the same
time in New Zealand. This would make it open to a wider range of New Zealand social
entrepreneurs and philanthropists ... with the main plenary and keynote speakers from
Oxford beamed into our satellite conference, accompanied by our own keynote speakers
and our own workshop sessions.
Imagine if there was a whole network of these satellite summits in various countries ...
with the best of their local keynote contributions being shared around the network. This
would also be another way to extend the reach and impact of the important ideas and
practical role models for change that are found within this Forum.
vivian Hutchinson
Executive Officer
April 2007
Resources.
— “Blow to Blair as western aid falls for first time in 10 years” by Larry Elliott in The
Guardian 3 April 2007
http://politics.guardian.co.uk/development/story/0,,2048914,00.html
— “Blow for Brown as poverty figures increase after years of decline” by Ashley Seager in
The Guardian 28 March 2007
http://society.guardian.co.uk/socialexclusion/story/0,,2044236,00.html
— “Pulling for the Underdog” Dennis Whittle Social Edge Blog 28 March 2007
http://www.socialedge.org/blogs/pulling‐for‐the‐underdog/archive/2007/03/28/boy‐we‐
have‐been‐through‐the‐wringer
vivian Hutchinson

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— some notes from Oxford / UK — March 2007

27–29 MARCH 2007

THREE DAYS AND NIGHTS,

SPECIAL FOCUS: SOCIAL INNOVATION

The next Skoll World Forum will major on social

This year, we also:

 Run applied workshops where changemakers can

 Sustain a growing international debate about

 Advance academic enquiry into the issues that will

The Skoll World Forum has rapidly established itself

The Forum sells out early. So book the dates. Contact

“Many of the problems in the world remain unresolved because we continue to

"Our post‐global society is poverty‐stricken — with a new kind of poverty. Today, we

“ Put simply, between the traditional approach to financing non‐profit ventures

“ A growing array of apparently insoluble socio‐economic, environmental and governance

“Foundations are neither poor imitations of government nor the chosen

“ We have a phenomenal non‐profit sector in America. It has a turnover of

“There is no change without individuals, and nothing sustained without institutions.”

Some of these philanthropy marketplace websites include:

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