Skoll Foundation’s Grants: a Sampling of Awards

Acción International (Boston): $75,000 to develop model technology to streamline microcredit lending to help low-income women around the world run small businesses.

Acumen Fund (New York): $400,000 to support investment in enterprises that foster civic participation in the Muslim world.

Appropriate Technologies for Enterprise Creation (Nairobi, Kenya): $300,000 to establish a U.S. office to support the development of low-cost technologies for grass-roots entrepreneurs in Africa.

Ashoka: Innovators for the Public (Arlington, Va.): $1.5-million to create the first Global Academy of Social Entrepreneurs.

Bayview Hunters Point Center for Arts and Technology (San Francisco): $1.7-million to duplicate an approach used by the Manchester Craftsmen’s Guild to combine arts and crafts with job training to motivate inner-city youngsters.

Benetech (Palo Alto, Calif.): $50,000 to support research and development for technologies benefiting humanity.

College Summit (Washington): $54,000 to help expand the program’s reach and increase the number of low-income students enrolling in college.

Downtown College Preparatory School (San Jose, Calif.): $150,000 to support the establishment of an innovative charter school in San Jose.

Freedom From Hunger (Davis, Calif.): $50,000 to help spread around the world a model of helping women in developing countries through microcredit and business and health education.

Global Giving (Bethesda, Md.): $200,000 to help create a worldwide online marketplace for international aid and philanthropy.

Grameen Foundation USA (Washington): $50,000 to promote development of the microfinance industry in Pakistan.

Katalysis Partnership (Stockton, Calif.): $50,000 to help distribute best practices in microfinance “bootstrap banking” through its network in Latin America.

Oregon Public Broadcasting (Portland): $1.7-million to develop a documentary television series on cutting-edge social entrepreneurs around the world.

SEED Foundation (Washington): $100,000 to help establish the first urban boarding school for low-income students.

Silicon Valley Urgency Fund (San Jose, Calif.): $2.5-million to help local nonprofit groups cope with the loss of support during the economic downturn that followed the September 11, 2001, attacks, and to stimulate others to give.

University of Oxford (Oxford, England): $7.7-million to create the Skoll Centre on Social Entrepreneurship at the Saïd Business School and to support the Skoll World Forum on Social Entrepreneurship.