The Skoll Foundation has announced the recipients of the 2018 Skoll Awards for Social Entrepreneurship.
The annual awards provide unrestricted funding to social entrepreneurs and organizations that are driving large-scale social change and are poised to have an even greater impact on some of the world’s most pressing problems. The six awardees will each receive $1.25 million in core support to scale their work and increase their impact and will participate in a global community of a hundred visionary leaders and innovators dedicated to solving some of the biggest global challenges.
Announced ahead of the 2018 Skoll World Forum next week in Oxford, England, this year’s awardees are Lesley Marincola, founder and CEO of Angaza (Nairobi, Kenya), which provides a pay-as-you-go technology platform that expands access to affordable clean energy products for the world’s one billion off-grid customers; Jess Ladd, founder and CEO of Callisto (San Francisco), which provides an online reporting platform for victims of sexual assault; Jennifer Pahlka, founder and executive director of Code for America (San Francisco), which builds and deploys open-source technology designed to make government services more effective and easier to use; Barbara Pierce Bush, co-founder and CEO of Global Health Corps (New York City), whose distinctive leadership program is fostering a network of innovative leaders working to strengthen and transform health systems; Anushka Ratnayake, founder and CEO of myAgro (Bamako, Mali, and Oakland), whose pioneering mobile layaway savings model enables smallholder farmers to invest in the high-quality seeds, fertilizer, tools, and training they need to improve their harvests and escape poverty; and Harish Hande, CEO of SELCO Foundation(Bangalore, India), which is working to build an ecosystem that increases the accessibility, affordability, and sustainability of renewable energy for the poor.
“Working side-by-side with those most affected by violence, injustice, or exclusion, these six social entrepreneurs — five of whom are women — have drawn upon an array of technologies to design their innovative solutions,” said Skoll Foundation president and CEO Sally Osberg. “In tackling issues ranging from financial inclusion to clean energy to poverty alleviation, these pioneering leaders, together with their teams and partners, demonstrate the potential for lasting equilibrium change.”

Source: https://philanthropynewsdigest.org/news/2018-skoll-awards-for-social-entrepreneurship-announced