In charity circles, people wondered about the motives of the Unitus board members, at least four of whom had invested in SKS Microfinance themselves and thus would reap profits from the I.P.O.

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Last month saw the latest Twitter foray into social good efforts with the launch of the new Hope140 initiative. Its #EndMalaria campaign over the past week featured the TwitPay platform for donations, creating a new call to action for Hope140. Twitter users participated in World Malaria Day by retweeting and donating $10. The Case Foundation matched donations with a $25,000 grant.

#EndMalaria demonstrated that Twitter can be more than an awareness mechanism for non-profits. Further, Twitter is using its Promoted Tweets feature as public service vehicle, launching with two charities; Room to Read, which is campaigning to promote the building of their 10,000th library, and Partners in Health. Now Twitter’s non-profit offering provides comprehensive capabilities, from click-throughs and retweets to bona fide donations and public service announcements.

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Interesting article on Bill Gates:

“Three-quarters of the world’s poorest people get their food and income by farming small plots of land,” Gates said. “So if we can make smallholder farming more productive and more profitable, we can have a massive impact on hunger and nutrition and poverty.”

That’s exactly what the first Green Revolution accomplished in the Latin America and Asia. “But it didn’t go far enough,” Gates said. “It didn’t go to Africa.”

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It’s the 20th anniversary of the Bioneers Conference. This leading-edge forum on environment and social justice issues focuses on solutions inspired by nature and human ingenuity. Our goal is to turn education into action by connecting people with nature and each other.

At this critical time in history we are asking for you to collaboratively help us spread the word about this year’s Bioneers Conference to advance our society.

To this end, we have created multiple digital content assets, social media channels and offerings for your sites, readers, audiences, members, managers, employees, family and friends. We hope that you will post and share.

This EPK contains embeddable creative assets including: photos, logos, banners, Bioneers membership badges, videos, 10% off discount coupons, a live conference photo viewer, slideshows, influencer press kit offerings, flyers and much more.

We’re also thrilled to provide you the option of posting the Bioneers Live Webcast Video Player so that your audiences can view some of the thought-leader plenary lectures as they happen.

Events Details:

• When: October 16 – 18
• Where: The Marin Civic Center
• Designed by Frank Lloyd Wright.
• 10 Avenue of the Flags, San Rafael, CA  94903
• Google Maps
• Conference Schedule
• Moving Image Festival
• Sustainable Social Media Panels
• Intensives: October 15 and 19

Here’s a 20% off link which also includes Free Bioneers’ Membership: http://bit.ly/3VghsU

The application process for the 2010-2011 Class of Acumen Fund Fellows is now open!

If you know exceptional individuals who should be part of our 2010-2011 class, we hope you will encourage them to apply. Please forward this email liberally throughout your networks so that we reach the strongest and most diverse candidate pool.

Applications will be accepted online until 11:59pm EST on Thursday, November 5, 2009. Detailed information about the program and application process, as well as the bios of current and past fellows, can be found on our website. To apply, or to send more information to others you know who might be interested, please click here.

We are looking for dedicated individuals with the practical skills, the creativity, the empathy and the leadership potential to affect change by leveraging market-based solutions to create social impact. Acumen Fund Fellows are drawn from a pool of talented, passionate people from all geographies, sectors, backgrounds and ethnicities.

Since graduating its first class of Fellows in 2007, the Fellows Program has continued to grow and expand, using the experiences of each class to continue building a unique training curriculum specifically focused on leadership and social enterprises. Fellows Alumni have called the program a life-changing experience, and one that allowed them to build critical business skills and a better understanding of the challenges involved in serving low-income consumers around the world.

Here’s the news via echoing green:

Echoing Green would like to congratulate board member, Patrick Corvington, who, today, who was nominated by President Obama to the position of Chief Executive Officer at the Corporation for National and Community Service. For those of us in the world of social innovation, who have worked closely with Patrick over the years, we applaud the administration’s selection of this visionary and experienced leader who understands well the roles of indigenous and next-generation leadership, community problem solving, and cross-sector partnerships in community transformation.

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2009 Social Enterprise Conference
From Vision to Practice
Friday, October 9th
7:45 AM – 7:00 PM
New York

Columbia Business School’s Social Enterprise Program and International Development Clubs will host the 8th Annual Social Enterprise Conference. This year’s Conference, From vision to practice, will be held on Friday, October 9, 2009 at Lerner hall of the Columbia University’s Morningside Campus in New York City. The keynote speaker this year is Craig R. Barrett, retired CEO/Chairman of Board INTEL CORPORATION.

Check out the annual Microfinance India Summit which acts as a global meeting ground for policy-makers, practitioners, promoters and researchers to delve into and address fundamental concerns related to microfinance in India. This year’s conference is being held from 26 to 28 October 2009 in New Delhi.

ACCESS Development Services, a not-for-profit company based in New Delhi that assists the growing microfinance sector through streamlined and structured services to emerging MFIs and supports the enabling environment through the Microfinance India platform (www.microfinanceindia.org).

In case you read this blog only through RSS, we decided to refresh the site.  Some content and links needed to be moved around. Please let me know if you spot any issues.  You can reach us via the contact form.

Also, we’ve doing some refreshing in the office and have to give a shout out to a new office product that we’ve been trying out- this wifi enabled Brother laser printer (which replaced a Brother laser printer we loved but it didn’t have wifi). We’ve been plugging in our laptops to print, which was a big hassle, but no more of that!