N - Z
Philanthropic Organizations
- The Omidyar Network
- Operation Family Fund
- The Paul G. Allen Family Foundation
- The Robin Hood Foundation
- The Rockefeller Foundation
- Ronald McDonald House Charities
- The Ross Institute
- The Ruth Lilly Philanthropic Foundation
- The Damon Runyon Cancer Research Fund
- The Saban Family Foundation
- The Larry and Jane Scheinfeld Foundation
- The Skoll Foundation
- The Smith Richardson Foundation
- The Soros Foundation Network
- Tomorrow's Hope Foundation
- United Nations Foundation
- The Waitt Family Foundation
The Skoll Foundation
Founder: Jeffery Skoll
Jeffrey Skoll is one of the key factors in the emergence of eBay! as one of the Internet’s most successful auction sites. Skoll has also served as its president from 1996 until the arrival of Meg Whitman in 1998. Skoll subsequently left the company and cashed out his share that totaled $2 billion.
He founded the Skoll Foundation in 1999 with aims to encourage ‘social entrepreneurship.’ The Skoll Foundation annually shells out over $30 million dollars in grants and scholarships.
Areas of Interest: Empowering and investing in social entrepreneurs
Notable Projects/Programs:
The Skoll Foundation celebrates the social entrepreneurs through the organization’s flagship award – the Skoll Awards for Social Entrepreneurship, which is given every three years. The program encourages the promotion, replication, and continuation of entrepreneurial ventures that have proved successful in addressing delicate issues such as human rights, environmental conservation and sustainability, and peace and security. Some of the recent recipients of the award are listed below:
- Sakena Yacoobi – founded the Afghan Learning Institute in 1995 in efforts to fix the education and healthcare system after 30 years of warfare.
- Jeero Billimoria – established the Aflatoun and aided children who are in poverty. Currently, one of the organization’s programs is educating street children and helping them succeed academically.
- Michael Eckhart – a strong voice for renewable energy, Eckhart, along with his colleague, founded the American Council on Renewable Energy in 2005. The organization’s main goal is to increase electricity supply by renewable source to 25% by 2025.
Other programs of the Skoll Foundation include: (1) the Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship, which supports the academic growth of social entrepreneurs in partnership with the Oxford University; (2) the Skoll World Forum on Social Entrepreneurship, a conference organized by the Skoll Foundation that brings leaders and successful social entrepreneurs together to discuss new methods, exchange ideas and thoughts, as well as present innovations for the said field, and; (3) the SocialEdge.org, a website that fosters online communication and connection among philanthropists, non-profit institutions, and social entrepreneurs.