Skoll Foundation : Skoll Foundation Stanford Graduate School of Business Strategic Issues in Philanthropy
Laura Arrillaga, June 2006
Skoll Foundation Overview Sally Osberg
Framing the Questions : Who is Jeff Skoll? “The first and fundamental fact about foundations is that they do not start with a concept or an organization chart or a strategic plan. A foundation starts with a person, the donor.” *
How have Jeff Skoll’s values and vision shaped the Skoll Foundation? “…good donors and good philanthropy go together.” *
* Waldemar A. Nielsen. “Inside American Philanthropy” Framing the Questions
Who Is Jeff Skoll? : Biographical details
Canadian-born
1987 BASc, University of Toronto
1987 Skoll Engineering, founder
1990 Micros on the Move, Ltd., founder
1995 MBA, Stanford University
1996 eBay, first president; widely acknowledged as cofounder with Pierre Omidyar
1999 Creates Skoll Community Fund
2002 Creates Skoll Foundation
2003 LLD University of Toronto Who Is Jeff Skoll?
Who Is Jeff Skoll … really? : Mind of an engineer: disciplined, analytical, looks for leverage
Heart of an artist: imaginative, intuitive, seeks meaning
Soul of an entrepreneur: driven, innovative, generates value Who Is Jeff Skoll … really?
Skoll Foundation Organizing Principles : We support organizations rather than individuals.
We look for organizations with a proven track record whose work is based in empowerment.
We believe unlocking potential in those with the greatest potential will yield greater gains for more people.
We seek leverage in our grant making, looking for multiplicative and long-term impact.
We see greater benefit in projects or programs with wide-scale or universal application.
We consider community benefit essential, and we look for evidence of significant, tangible results.
We are inspired by innovation, creative ideas and new solutions to problems. Skoll Foundation Organizing Principles
Skoll Foundation Mission and Vision : Our vision is to live in a world of peace and prosperity where all people, regardless of geography, background or economic status, enjoy and employ the full range of their talents and abilities. “Many of the problems of our modern world, ranging from disease to drugs to crime to terrorism, derive from the inequities between rich and poor...be they rich nation vs. poor nation or rich community vs. poor community. It is in the best interests of the well-off to help empower those who are not as well-off to improve their lives.” – Jeff Skoll
Our mission is to advance systemic change to benefit communities around the world by investing in, connecting and celebrating social entrepreneurs. Skoll Foundation Mission and Vision
Skoll Foundation Issue Areas : Skoll Foundation Issue Areas
Slide8 : Skoll Foundation Growth 2000-2006
Thinking About Entrepreneurs : Thinking About Entrepreneurs Peter Drucker, in the late 20th century, writes:
“…the entrepreneur always searches for change, responds to it and exploits it as an opportunity.”
What Is a Social Entrepreneur? : What Is a Social Entrepreneur? Social entrepreneurs see and seize opportunities to produce large-scale, positive social change.
Social entrepreneurs demonstrate all the characteristics of the business entrepreneur: Possessed by an innovative idea, they are driven, focused and unrelenting in their determination to produce results.
That said, they must also be exceptionally skilled at identifying and mobilizing resources.
Profile Comparison : Profile Comparison Business entrepreneur
Economic context
Acutely aware of change
Sees implications and opportunities
Seizes opportunity
May cause, exploit or affect change Social entrepreneur
Social context
Acutely aware of change
Sees implications and opportunities
Seizes opportunity
May cause, exploit or affect change
Profile Contrast : Profile Contrast Business entrepreneur
Capitalization opportunity within a market framework
Defined time frame
Quantifiable venture- value proposition
Profit indicator
Growth or failure Social entrepreneur
Limited capitalization opportunity within a social framework
Elastic time frame
Tough to quantify venture-value proposition
Social impact
Sustainability
Social Entrepreneurship Is Not: : Social Entrepreneurship Is Not: A way of characterizing the altruistic impulse
Another way of describing people who work for nonprofits or NGOs
Good corporate citizenship
A new public benefit sector model
Social enterprise
Social Entrepreneurship Is Not New : Social Entrepreneurship Is Not New Founded Hull House, a social settlement in Chicago, with Ellen Gates Starr
Hull House efforts expanded to the national level (fed. Children's Bureau and fed. child labor laws created.) Helped found the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
Helped organize Woman's Peace Party, elected first chairman
First American woman recipient of Nobel Peace Prize
Country's most prominent woman through her writing, her settlement work and her international efforts for world peace Jane Addams (1860-1935) Source: http://www.rootsweb.com/~nwa/ http://www.uic.edu/jaddams/hull/hull_house.html
Social Entrepreneurship Is Not New : Social Entrepreneurship Is Not New First to state publicly that the rich have a moral obligation to give away their fortunes. In 1889 he wrote The Gospel of Wealth, in which he asserted that all personal wealth beyond that required to supply the needs of one's family should be regarded as a trust fund to be administered for the benefit of the community.
In his 30s, Carnegie had already begun to give away some of his fast-accumulating funds.
Lifelong interests included the establishment of free public libraries to make available to everyone a means of self-education: $56 million to build 2,509 libraries.
During his lifetime, he gave away more than $350 million. Andrew Carnegie (1835-1919) Source: http://www.lfpl.org/western/htms/carnegie.htm
What Social Entrepreneurship Is : What Social Entrepreneurship Is Founded in Kenya in 1991 by Martin Fisher and Nick Moon, Appropriate Technologies for Enterprise Creation (ApproTEC) has enabled local entrepreneurs in Kenya and Tanzania to start more than 33,000 profitable small businesses using existing technologies such as its manually operated “MoneyMaker” pump. ApproTEC Source: http://www.approtec.org/
Opportunities : Opportunities “What we have here are some breathtaking opportunities disguised as insoluble problems.”
- John Gardner
Skoll Foundation Initiatives : Skoll Foundation Initiatives
Make a Difference : Make a Difference “The idea is that a little bit of good can turn into a whole lot of good when fueled by the commitment of a social entrepreneur.”
-Jeff Skoll
Slide20 : “Perhaps most important, a clear-eyed survey of foundation launching helps us appreciate the extraordinary achievements of those donors who managed to create great foundations–those rare individuals who gave their foundations not only funding but ideas, courage, and entrepreneurial skills.”
- Waldemar A. Nielsen, The Dramas of Donorship Make a Difference