News
Class Acts 
By Carolyne Zinko, San Francisco Chronicle, January 14, 2007
A new breed of young Bay Area philanthropists redefines the meaning -- and methods -- of giving.
>> More Details | created on: 02/19/2007
More Businesses and Investors Emerging to Do Good, xigi 'Social Networking' Map Shows
Yahoo News, January 10, 2007
The market for businesses and investors that do good just came into focus thanks to new online maps that track the fast-growing but still emerging capital market that includes fair trade, microfinance, social enterprise, independent media and clean technology.
>> More Details | created on: 01/19/2007
Unitus Reaches 1 Million of the World’s Working Poor
Unitus, December 6, 2006
Innovative approach brings life-changing loans and opportunity to 1 million micro-entrepreneurs.
Unitus, Inc., a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to reducing global poverty by increasing access to microfinance, today announced that its worldwide portfolio of microfinance partners is now reaching more than 1 million small entrepreneurs with empowering loans. These loans of as little as $100 enable the working poor to start small businesses and lift themselves and their families out of poverty.
>> More Details | created on: 01/19/2007
From weapons of war to great coffee
By Amber Henshaw, BBC News, October 31, 2006
In his workshop in Mekele, just 120 km from Ethiopia's border with Eritrea, Azmeraw Zeleke is turning burnt-out shells into cylinders used in coffee machines. Most of the shells are left over from the 1998-2000 war between the two countries.
The workshop is made up of three quite small ramshackle rooms that lead from one to another with sunlight coming through the gaps, but it is a hive of activity for Mr Azmeraw and his six staff.
>> More Details | created on: 11/02/2006
India has most innovative social entrepreneurs: Schwab
By Murali Krishnan, Hindustan Times, October 31, 2006
India is a key country to look for leading social entrepreneurs, says Klaus Schwab, executive chairman and founder of the World Economic Forum (WEF), as his Schwab Foundation prepares to shortlist a winner for the Indian Social Entrepreneur Award for the second year.
"India has some of the most advanced and innovative social entrepreneurs. We believe and already see that many of the models developed in India, for instance rainwater harvesting for schools pioneered by Barefoot College, are exported around the world. India is therefore a key country to look for leading social entrepreneurs," Klaus Schwab said in an exclusive interview.
>> More Details | created on: 11/02/2006
Cool Tools for the Third World 
Time Magazine, May 29, 2006
From internet anntenas bolted to trees to pedal power laptops, they are bringing 21st centyry advencements to those who need them the most.
>> More Details | created on: 09/22/2006
"Shopping Here Can Make a Difference" at Fundraisers.com
Yahoo.com, September 13, 2005
LOS ANGELES, CA-- Billions of dollars are spent every day on products and services for homes and businesses; now by making these purchases through social enterprises and socially responsible businesses, people can provide support for their favorite causes at the same time. Fundraisers.com (www.fundraisers.com), a worldwide community of volunteers and professional fundraisers, today announced the launch of the "Shopping Here Can Make a Difference" section of its web site -- an aggregation of vendors and service providers that enables shoppers to search by product or service category or by the causes they support. The first organizations showcased in this new, ecommerce mall are members of the Social Enterprise Alliance, the leading authority in the social enterprise movement. Many more organizations from around the world will be added in the coming weeks and months.
>> More Details | created on: 08/11/2006
ACCION PortaCredit Increasing MFI Efficiency with Technology
By Susana Barton & Carlos del Busto, ACCION. InSight, Number 9, May, 2004
Describes how the implementation of PortaCredit, an application that uses personal digital assistants, offers significant opportunities to microfinance institutions to improve efficiency.
>> More Details | created on: 02/23/2006
Books
Innovations from the Field. A Daringly Brief Summary of a Huge Phenomenon
By John K. Hatch & Sara Levine, Pathways Out of Poverty. Innovations in Microfinance for the Poorest Families. Kummarian Press, 2002
Describes over four-dozen innovations of microlending organizations in areas such as client products and services, financing, administration and governance, program evaluation and response to emergencies.
>> More Details | created on: 02/21/2006
Cases & Educational Materials
RISE For Profit Social Enterpreneyr Report: Balancing Markets and Value
By Catherine C. Clark & Selen Ucak, March 1, 2006
Over the past 30 years, we have witnessed the evolution of a new breed of company: the for-profit social venture. Popularized by pioneering social entrepreneurs such as Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield of Ben & Jerry’s, Anita Roddick of the Body Shop, Jeffrey Hollander of Seventh Generation, Gary Hirshberg of Stonyfield Farm, Paul Newman of Newman’s Own, and many others, the social venture seeks to effect social and environmental change directly through its business.
This first-of-its-kind exploratory study aims to take a snapshot of the landscape of U.S. forprofit social ventures, focusing on emerging companies that started within the past 30 years.
>> More Details | created on: 07/31/2006
Everyone a changemaker - Social Enterpreneuriship's ultimate goal
By Bill Drayton, Innovations, Winter 2006, February 23, 2006
Rodrigo Baggio grew up in Rio de Janeiro loving computers. As he matured into an extraordinarily tall, thin man with a hugely wide smile, he became a computer consultant. However, from early on, he was one of the few in his generation who noticed—with concern—that the young people growing up in the favelas on the hills overlooking his middle-class neighborhood had no access to this digital world.
>> More Details | created on: 07/25/2006
ICTs in Education Key Projects
UNESCO, 2005
Tata's Computer-Based Functional Literacy Program founded in India seeks to combat illiteracy by using multimedia and flashcards.
>> More Details | created on: 02/23/2006
Managing Risk - NIAC is thriving, despite taking on clients that no one else would
By Kathryn Olney, Standford Social Innovation Review, January, 2004
For most actuarial types, the image of an 81-year-old driving a forklift is enough to make them pack away their clipboard and head for the door. The forklift operator is a volunteer, as are almost all the operations people at Grey Bears, a nonprofit that packs and delivers nearly 60,000 lbs. of dated produce per week from Salinas Valley to seniors in Santa Cruz. But when the Nonprofits' Insurance Alliance of California (NIAC), a fledgling nonprofit insurance company dedicated to insuring fellow nonprofits, was getting off the ground, CEO Pamela Davis courted just such "high-risk" clients as the Grey Bears.
>> More Details | created on: 07/20/2006
A Fair Chance: Attaining Gender Equality in Basic Education by 2005
Action Aid: Global Campaign for Education, September, 2003
Describes BRAC's, an NGO in Bangladesh, innovative approach to curriculum design and school management that encourages children especially girls to attend school.
>> More Details | created on: 02/23/2006
CGAP IT Innovation Series
Consultative Group to Assist the Poor, 2003
A series of handouts explaining requirements, how it works, benefits, and lessons from previous implementation of technological innovations in the microfinance sector such as automated teller machines, interactive voice response technology, and personal digital assistants.
>> More Details | created on: 02/21/2006
What Works: PRODEM FFP’S Multilingual Smart ATMS for Microfinance. Innovative Solutions for Delivering Financial Services to rural Bolivia
By Roberto Hernandez & Yerina Mugica, Digital Dividend Business Case Study, 2003
This case study shows how the implementation of smart cards and digital fingerprint recognition technology has improved customer’s accessibility to PRODEM financial services. This technology was designed while prioritizing customer’s needs and achieving lower cost.
>> More Details | created on: 02/21/2006
What Works: Tarahaat’s Portal for Rural India
By Caitlin Peterson & Vivek Sandell, A Digital Dividend Study for the World Resources Institute, July, 2001
TARAhaat is an Internet portal supporting a network of franchised village Internet centers in rural India. It delivers a wide range of social and economic information, as well as educational and other services, earning revenues through fee for service, membership fees, and commissions.
>> More Details | created on: 02/22/2006
Academic Research
Improving Microfinance Practice: “Best Practices” Followed by India’s Leading MFIs
Micro-credit Ratings International Limited – M-CRIL, 2002
Documents some of the innovations that nine of the leading microfinance institutions in India have adopted to successfully serve the poor, in terms of outreach and sustainability. Covers a broad type of innovations in product design and operating practices.
>> More Details | created on: 02/21/2006