Can charitable $ be recycled? In the words of famed venture capitalist John Doerr of KP, can you “write one $10M check and have that capital sustain itself?”

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DreamBikes started when John Burke, president of Trek BIcycle Company, suggested the idea and then donated the seed money to open the first DreamBikes shop in Madison four years ago.

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Rubies in the Rubble is a social enterprise providing employment to the needy and reducing food waste by making chutney and jam from surplus fresh produce.

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We all have old, well loved garments that never get worn anymore. Project Repat now offers an option to reinvigorate them via custom bags, ties, and more, made based on what you send in. It’s made domestically via a worker owned shop that pays fair wages, focusing on organic and local sourcing.

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Launch is a one-of-a-kind public-private partnership between NASA, USAID, US State Department, and Nike to use the “power of prizes” to encourage startups to develop an innovative solution that addresses the needs of the developing world. Next up: waste issues.

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A call to action for Walmart and McDonald’s to support the Create Jobs for USA program and create entrepreneurial opportunities and jobs for low-income communities.

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By G. Nagesh Rao Social media has transformed the outlook for entrepreneurs and for innovation as a whole. The speed at which knowledge and information is spread around the globe has pulled down barriers and leveled the playing field for would-be entrepreneurs everywhere. At the same time, silos that separate businesses and economies are also [...]

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Consumers in emerging markets increasingly demand – as they should – products designed to meet their specific needs rather than ones patched together or retro-fitted from existing ones.

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Post ads to let Massachusetts citizens express their dismay about recent votes to gut the Clean Air Act. The importance of fundraising as an element of any social marketing campaign is a consideration that should not be overlooked. Many social marketing campaigns are developed by nonprofits and governmental organizations that recognize the value of the [...]

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How can we successfully rise to these challenges? In theory, development that is sustainable and not damaging to the planet is doable. In reality, there are challenges at every step, and so far our record on moving towards sustainability in a collective manner, with a common framework, appears to have been quite feeble.

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Getting rid of mattresses is difficult. Most landfills don’t want them as they are bulky and the springs in them damage the crushing equipment. This is where Spring Back, the mattress recycling initiative comes in. Nashville-based Spring Back Recycling is a non-profit organization that works to break down mattresses and build up the lives of formerly incarcerated [...]

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Eight19 announced Kickstart, a program that funds pay-as-you go solar energy in poor dual areas, this week at the World Future Energy Summit in Abu Dhabi.

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Whether they benefit from visionary leaders, flourishing social enterprise, or commitment from community activists, the following 10 cities are well worth a visit to experience their transformation and resilience.

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The sustainability movement is making waves in North Carolina, at least that’s the impression one might have gotten from the budding enthusiasm at yesterday’s GreenNC: Building for a Sustainable Future in Durham, North Carolina. Mayor Bill Bell opened up the conference by bragging about his Bull City, which has become a hub for social and [...]

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Last week Forbes added a new list to its famous collection. It wasn’t about the richest people in Asia, the most powerful women in America or the best companies worldwide, but about the top social entrepreneurs. For the first time in its 94-year history, Forbes assembled the Impact 30: a list of the world’s leading [...]

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While yellow leaves to most of us signify the changing of the seasons, to the Mlabri hill tribe of Thailand they mean a complete change in their lives. Yellow Leaf Hammocks are a vehicle to change their health, environment, and financial independence. These resilient people were able to create their own livelihood via these high [...]

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Yesterday, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff kicked off Dreamforce 2011, the largest cloud computing event of the year with over 45,000 in attendance and 35,000 joining online. Benioff took the stage at San Francisco’s Moscone Center to the pulsing sound of Metallica drawing an image of the future of social enterprise with Salesforce at the helm. [...]

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Naples, a city besieged by its trash crisis and frustration for so long, may teach some of us how to cope when local governments are underfunded or non-responsive.

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The intergenerational leadership at Two Degrees Food creates a unique perspective that informs our approach to sustainability, how our respective peer groups operate (and, critically, what motivates them), how best to shape what we do as a company, and how we do it..

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by Lorna Li The solar industry is booming these days and it’s easy to get caught up in solar startup fever. Firstly, solar is the top job growth driver in the US economy, in spite of the economic recession.  So now’s a great opportunity to get a green job in the solar sector. But also, [...]

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The Ashoka Foundation is the largest association of leading social entrepreneurs in the world.  They work on three simple levels: By supporting individual social entrepreneurs throughout their life cycle, they bring communities together. These communities then help leverage their impact, scale their ideas and capture and disseminate their best practices. Then they help to build the [...]

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By Matt Evans At the beginning of this month, SOCAP Europe was hosted  in the same area of Amsterdam where the very first capital markets were built over 400 years ago. Created to invest in the dangerous voyages of sea captains to the Far East to bring back spices, silk, and other revolutionary products, those [...]

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Ashoka’s Changemakers has partnered with the eBay Foundation to help five aspiring social entrepreneurs with $50,000 in startup capital. The initiative, called “Powering Economic Opportunity: Create a World that Works” seeks to fund innovative market-based solutions that create employment opportunities for vulnerable populations. And in this case, the early bird really does get the worm! [...]

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Benedicte de Blavous Moubarak founded 2B Design in 2004, with the idea that she could bring together people who may practice different religions, but were marginalized, often because of disabilities, and could not find gainful work. The result are pieces that reflect Beirut’s glorious past.

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Zoran Pulijic started Mozaik in 2000 with the belief that Bosnians know the best way how to build opportunity in their towns and villages. Pulijic and his colleagues developed what they describe as its Community Driven Development (CDD) methodology, which works to achieve maximum participation with community members on local development projects.

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Fair trade is one window through which Bulgarian can participate as a buyer and seller of niche products. Consumers here are getting a taste of fair trade coffee through Starbucks’ opening of several new stores through its capital, Sofia, in the last year.

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It seems these days there are an increasing number of natural (and unnatural) disasters happening. You see images of stranded people, injured animals, and devastated environments. What about concrete solutions with life and usefulness after the cameras have gone home? LifeGivingForce is one of those. What it does is simple, yet incredibly important for so [...]

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Global climate change is on the minds of many, but some of Earth’s inhabitants are noticing the change more quickly than others. This is because many people, particularly those living in developing countries, have traditionally close ties to the land, relying on natural resources every day for survival. As our environment continues to deteriorate, impoverished [...]

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As part of our partnership with the Social Capital Markets Conference 2010, we are featuring a series of interviews with key conference participants. Don’t forget to get your 30% discount by using the code “3P30″ when you register! I sat down with Mike Del Ponte, Founder and CEO of Sparkseed.  Most recently Sparkseed ran the most adventurous, [...]

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These are indeed challenging times in our industry. As has been chronicled in these articles, the public doesn’t trust that the industry is serving their interests, and opposition to land development projects because of social and environmental concerns is running at an all-time high. To make matters worse, industry professionals don’t trust each other to [...]

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