American Public Media’s Public Radio Business Show Is Looking For Stories About Social Entrepreneurship

American Public Media’s public radio business show Marketplace (www.marketplace.org) reports on entrepreneurs and the issues they face. American Public Media is also doing a new kind of journalism that involves reaching out to communities of people with knowledge, expertise and experience on a topic. To support Marketplace’s entrepreneurship coverage, APM is building a Public Insight… Continue reading American Public Media’s Public Radio Business Show Is Looking For Stories About Social Entrepreneurship

Project Agape– A Tech Social Venture Leverages Facebook’s Network

Called “Causes on Facebook,” it allows you to create a cause, or promote an existing one to their friends You can pick from 1.5 million non-profits in the U.S. It uses Facebook’s “feed” feature to notify friends when you’ve joined a new cause. Finally, it allows you to promote the cause in other ways, building… Continue reading Project Agape– A Tech Social Venture Leverages Facebook’s Network

NOW on PBS: A Series About Social Entrepreneurs And Their Ideas

There’s a new project launched by NOW on PBS covering social entrepreneurs. Called “Enterprising Ideas,” the project will feature monthly broadcasts on social entrepreneurs, beginning with this Friday. We’ve created an unprecedented five-minute “preview” on YouTube of this Friday’s show, which I like to call “One Million Served:” Here is the copy from the website… Continue reading NOW on PBS: A Series About Social Entrepreneurs And Their Ideas

The Ultimate Resource- Free Markets – People Making Their Own Decisions

This is a day late but I just wanted to blog about this new series that aired yesterday night on HDNet. Free Market incentives are spectacularly changing lives and entire economies over much of the world. In the last 25 years, hundreds of millions of people– 400 million in China alone– have climbed out of… Continue reading The Ultimate Resource- Free Markets – People Making Their Own Decisions

Acumen Fund In BusinessWeek

Check out this story in the current Businessweek on the Acumen Fund– Designing Change: How venture philanthropy fund Acumen uses design thinking to help solve real-world problems Here’s some text from an email by founder Jacqueline Novogratz: We wanted to share with you an article on Acumen Fund that just appeared in BusinessWeek’s “Inside Innovation”… Continue reading Acumen Fund In BusinessWeek

OneBrick and ProductRed

I found this review of philanthrophic websites via digg.com. I’ve blogged about most of the sites but two I have not covered are OneBrick: One Brick is a commitment-free nonprofit volunteer organization pointing you quickly to what needs to get done and who needs your help. Sign up on your terms to bypass the tedium… Continue reading OneBrick and ProductRed

A “For-Profit” Structure For Google.org Enables Social Entrepreneurship

Google’s founders, Sergey Brin and Larry Page, are planning to set up Google.org, the philanthropic arm of Google, as a for-profit with an initial “seed investment” of $1 billion “to tackle poverty, disease and global warming” (Link to NYTimes, sub required). But unlike most charities, this one will be for-profit, allowing it to fund start-up… Continue reading A “For-Profit” Structure For Google.org Enables Social Entrepreneurship

Microfinance- Making A Big Difference In The Developing World- A Plug For Kiva

Microfinance has gained tremendous momentum in the last year following a large infusion of venture capital. Two companies dominate the mindshare in this space: Prosper and Zopa. However, a lesser known microfinance venture, Kiva.org, is already using the model to demonstrate remarkable social returns by focusing specifically on “loaning money to businesses in the developing… Continue reading Microfinance- Making A Big Difference In The Developing World- A Plug For Kiva

A Charity Takes Medicine Into Its Own Hands

Here’s a great story about a non-profit organization called OneWorld Health, which is trying to be the first non-profit pharmaceutical company. Apparently, promising drugs are identified but not being developed because the drugs aren’t expected to make much money. OneWorld Health has identified one such situation in particular involving a disease called black fever, which… Continue reading A Charity Takes Medicine Into Its Own Hands

CentroMigante Wins Development Category at MIT Business Plan Competition

Catching up on my reading and saw a good post on CentroMigante winning the Development category at MIT’s Business Plan Competition. CentroMigrante combines developmental architecture with a self-help business model to offer a sustainable solution that provides clean, safe and affordable urban housing for impoverished, transient job seekers in developing countries. World Bank’s Private Sector… Continue reading CentroMigante Wins Development Category at MIT Business Plan Competition