Skoll Foundation Invests in Leading Social Entrepreneurs

- Foundation commits total of $14,165,000 in new funding
- Civic Ventures is latest recipient of Skoll Award for Social
Entrepreneurship
- Ashoka and ShoreCap II also receive Skoll investments

PALO ALTO, Calif., Sept. 1 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Skoll Foundation
announced today second round investments in fifteen social entrepreneurs in
its portfolio driving large-scale impact worldwide. In addition, the
Foundation announced the first Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship in its
2010 round, a $765,000 grant to Civic Ventures, plus investments in two key
partners who promote social entrepreneurship and social innovation, Ashoka and
ShoreCap II. In aggregate, the new grants and program-related investments
total $14,165,000.

"In the current economic environment, the demands on social change
organizations have increased while resources available to them have fallen, so
it is incumbent on organizations like ours to maximize the marginal value of
every dollar we spend," said Sally Osberg, president and CEO of the Skoll
Foundation. "We believe the investments we're making today will accelerate the
impact of these leading global social entrepreneurs, who continue to make real
progress tackling the big challenges before us, from climate change to water
scarcity to public health."

In 2006, the Skoll Foundation made its second round of investments under its
flagship Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship (SASE) program. These were
three-year grants designed to provide core support to help the recipients
scale their impact in pursuit of large-scale social change. Over the last
year, the Foundation has worked closely with these 2006 recipients to
determine whether, and at what level, to make additional investments.
Consistent with its approach as a mezzanine funder, the Foundation has looked
for progress against original grant objectives, as well as the potential for
significant movement toward sustainability and large scale impact over the
next three years. The Foundation's board has approved a package of grants for
the fifteen 2006 SASE organizations totaling $11,050,000.

"All the organizations in the class of 2006 continue to do excellent work and
are addressing important issues," said Osberg. "In our assessment process, we
identified five organizations -- Ceres, College Summit, Health Care Without
Harm, Riders for Health, and Room to Read -- which we believe are particularly
well positioned to leverage Skoll funding to drive very significant impact in
their issue areas over the next three years."

Civic Ventures
The Foundation also named its first award recipient for its 2010 cohort, Civic
Ventures. Marc Freedman founded Civic Ventures ten years ago with the goal of
finding caring, committed adults to help young people growing up in poverty --
as mentors, teachers and youth workers. His belief that the vast and growing
older population could serve as a critical resource for children led him to
spearhead the development of Experience Corps, now a highly successful
tutoring and mentoring program helping 20,000 children in 23 cities. In the
years since, Freedman founded The Purpose Prize, a $100,000 award for social
innovators over 60. His newest goal is to get millions of boomers to pour
their life experience into "encore careers," which combine personal meaning,
continued income and social impact. This new and growing workforce for social
change could solve some of society's toughest problems -- from education to
the environment, health care to homelessness. The Skoll grant will allow Civic
Ventures to promote the encore career and make midlife transitions easier,
with new continuing education programs, Encore Fellows initiatives and an
online community at Encore.org.

Ashoka
The Skoll Foundation also announced a new $350,000 grant to Ashoka, a
long-time partner of the Foundation and a strong proponent of social
entrepreneurship as a model for change. Ashoka plays a key role identifying,
strengthening the capacity, and building the community of social entrepreneurs
around the globe. The new grant will help Ashoka develop a more robust
knowledge sharing platform, as well as promote the organization's work to
develop standardized methods to measure impact in the field of social
entrepreneurship.

ShoreCap II

Finally, the Foundation also announced a program-related investment in
ShoreCap II in the form of a purchase of redeemable shares of up to
$2,000,000. ShoreCap II is a $100 million fund to invest in small business
banks and microfinance institutions serving those without access to capital.
This follows a successful investment by the Foundation in the initial ShoreCap
International fund. Focusing its efforts on sub-Saharan Africa and Asia,
ShoreCap II will shift the primary investment focus from microfinance
institutions to regulated small business banks. ShoreCap II will also consider
other specialized non-bank financial institutions, such as leasing companies
and housing finance entities. "In a resource constrained environment, we are
always looking for innovative ways to leverage our financial assets. ShoreCap
II presents an opportunity to fund via equity the efforts of an innovative and
socially entrepreneurial intermediary to accelerate the provision of capital
and other resources to underserved markets," said Richard Fahey, chief
operating officer of the Skoll Foundation. "An equity program related
investment is one of the most leveraged charitable options available to
achieve large-scale impact."

About the Skoll Foundation
The Skoll Foundation was created in 1999 by eBay's first president, Jeff
Skoll, to promote his vision of a more peaceful and prosperous world. Today
the Skoll Foundation drives large-scale change by investing in, connecting and
celebrating social entrepreneurs and other innovators dedicated to solving the
world's most pressing problems. Social entrepreneurs are individuals dedicated
to innovative, bottom-up solutions that transform unequal and unjust social,
environmental and economic systems.

The Skoll Awards for Social Entrepreneurship is the foundation's flagship
program. There are currently 60 organizations represented by 73 remarkable
social entrepreneurs in the program, working individually and together across
regions, countries and continents to deliver solutions to the world's most
challenging economic and social problems. The Skoll Foundation connects social
entrepreneurs and other partners in the field via an online community at
www.socialedge.org, and through the annual Skoll World Forum on Social
Entrepreneurship. The foundation also celebrates social entrepreneurs by
telling their stories through partnerships with organizations like the PBS
Foundation and the Sundance Institute, with the goal of promoting large-scale
public awareness of social entrepreneurship. For more information, visit
www.skollfoundation.org.

SOURCE Skoll Foundation

Bruce Lowry, Communications Director, The Skoll Foundation, +1-650-331-1020,
blowry@skollfoundation.org