Our key partners

92nd Street Y is a world-class nonprofit community and cultural center that connects people at every stage of life to the worlds of education, the arts, health and wellness, and Jewish life. Through the breadth and depth of 92Y's extraordinary programs, we enrich lives, create community and elevate humanity.

The Ford Motor Company International Fellowship of 92nd Street Y enhances the efforts of emerging leaders in communities throughout the world by providing them with critical management and leadership classes taught by faculty of the Picker Center for Executive Education at Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs. Participants build contacts and knowledge, bringing increased management expertise to their work at home. As of 2011, 233 individuals from 58 countries have participated.

Created in 1991, Abong is a nonprofit, democratic, pluralist, antiracist and antisexist platform of 250 Brazilian civil society organizations. Its member organizations come from all regions of the country and are committed to promoting human rights, democracy, social and environmental justice and opposing all forms of discrimination and inequality. Abong’s line of action is based on the coordination with networks and social movements aiming at influencing the debate on important themes, as well as on domestic and international public policies. It is also involved in local and regional initiatives, which give visibility to actions carried out by its member organizations, identifying their interests and supporting their institutional development.

Ashoka is leading a profound transformation in society. In the past three decades, the global citizen sector, led by social entrepreneurs, has grown exponentially. Just as the business sector experienced a tremendous spurt in productivity over the last century, the citizen sector is experiencing a similar revolution, with the number and sophistication of citizen organisations increasing dramatically.

Rather than leaving societal needs for the government or business sectors to address, social entrepreneurs are creating innovative solutions, delivering extraordinary results, and improving the lives of millions of people.

It is this insight into the power of social entrepreneurs that led Bill Drayton to found Ashoka in 1980 and that continues to guide Ashoka today.

Beginning with the first Ashoka Fellows elected in India in 1981, Ashoka has grown to an association of over 2,000 Fellows in over 60 countries on the world's five main continents.

Asia Society was founded in 1956 by John D. Rockefeller 3rd, and has grown to become the leading global and pan-Asian organization working to strengthen relationships and promote understanding among the people, leaders, and institutions of the United States and Asia. We seek to increase knowledge and enhance dialogue, encourage creative expression, and generate new ideas across the fields of arts and culture, policy and business, and education.

Avantage Ventures is a boutique investment and advisory firm based in Hong Kong and Beijing. The firm fosters sustainable development by providing capital and management support to local entrepreneurs, as well as nurture their organisations so they can work towards financial sustainability as a means of pursuing their bigger agenda, to create a sustainable future for poor and marginalised groups in Asia. Avantage Ventures also advise investors and corporations on their impact investing strategy and how they can engage Asian communities through their investments in sustainable social businesses, many of which are in China.

B Lab is a nonprofit organization dedicated to using the power of business to solve social and environmental problems. B Lab drives systemic change through three interrelated initiatives: 1) building a community of Certified B Corporations to make it easier for all of us to tell the difference between good companies and just good marketing; 2) accelerating the growth of the impact investing asset class through use of B Labs GIIRS impact rating system by institutional investors; and 3) promoting supportive public policies, including legislation creating a new corporate form and investment incentives for sustainable business.

Big Issue Invest is a leading provider of finance to social enterprises that offer innovative business solutions to social problems. We are led by social entrepreneurs and staffed by social financiers who are extending the boundaries of traditional investment and philanthropy to create a new social investment asset class.

We provide finance for social enterprises in the form of loans, participation loans and equity. We work closely with social enterprises to tailor our finance to fit with their growth needs and repayment capability. We can offer finance between 50,000 and 500,000 GBP.

Blue Ridge Foundation New York identifies innovative, high-potential ideas and helps transform them into institutions that demonstrate practical, effective solutions to social problems.

Our work is about realizing possibilities - recognizing promising strategies for social impact and helping to bring them to fruition.

Our mission is to help develop effective strategies for connecting people living in high poverty communities to the opportunities, resources, and support that they need to fulfil their full potential.

Change Fusion, a social enterprise supported by Ashoka.

The mission of Change Fusion Institute (CF) is to foster innovative solutions to increasingly complex social and environmental challenges through the creative use of new technologies, emerging perspectives and innovation networks.

CF executes its mission by providing social innovation design and investment services with a specific focus on catalyzing high-impact, scalable and sustainable social innovations and social enterprises.

CF provides its services to non-profit organizations, corporations, governments, international development organizations and philanthropists.

The mission of the Cherie Blair Foundation for Women is to strengthen the capacity of women entrepreneurs in countries where they lack equal opportunities so they can grow their businesses and become greater contributors to their economies.

Women with economic security and independence have greater control over their own and their children's lives.

Economic empowerment also gives women an influential voice in tackling injustice and discrimination in their own communities and in wider society.

The Desert Peoples Centre is a joint venture formed by Batchelor Institute of Indigenous Tertiary Education (BIITE) and the Centre for Appropriate Technology (CAT). It was established as an organisational expression of the commitment of both organisations to work together to develop better, innovative links between education and training and other services to achieve more positive and sustainable outcomes for Indigenous Australians, particularly residents of Desert Australia.

The Desert Peoples Centre has initiated the establishment of a Social Enterprise Hub, to LINK, GROW and NAVIGATE the social enterprise sector and its contribution to the social economy in Central Australia.

To accelerate social change, Echoing Green invests in and supports outstanding emerging social entrepreneurs to launch new organizations that deliver bold, high-impact solutions. Through a two-year fellowship program, we help our network of visionaries develop new solutions to society's most difficult problems. These social entrepreneurs and their organizations work to solve deeply-rooted social, environmental, economic, and political inequities to ensure equal access and to help all individuals reach their potential. To date, Echoing Green has invested over $28 million in seed funding to over 470 social entrepreneurs and their innovative organizations.

Euclid Network (EN) is the pan-European network for civil society professionals. Established in 2007, Euclid Network currently has more than 300 members in 31 countries and a network of more than 5000 contacts.

Euclid Network strengthens civil society by empowering and connecting professionals across borders within Europe and beyond, to facilitate the exchange of knowledge and partnerships. The network is a meeting place for all professionals working in the sector: There are as many members from conventional voluntary associations as there are from social businesses. Euclid Network boasts extraordinary experience and great success in promoting innovation and financial sustainability in the sector and in facilitating partnerships between national governments and international organisations, particularly with the European Union.

FYSE's mission is to increase the impact of social entrepreneurs by engaging key change agents in an entrepreneurial ecosystem. By pursuing a range of strategies FYSE provides a unique blend of resources, networks and funding to a portfolio of carefully selected social entrepreneurs who have the potential to significantly address social and environmental challenges.

To achieve systematic social impact we are driving a distinctive three-pronged social impact strategy:

1. Supporting high impact social entrepreneurs to deliver sustainable and scalable solutions to social and environmental challenges;
2. Engaging key change agents to foster entrepreneurial ecosystems to strengthen and build the capacity of social entrepreneurs;
3. Driving the field of social entrepreneurship through knowledge building, sharing, and storytelling.

Grameen Foundation USA empowers the world's poorest people to escape poverty through access to financial services and practical technology. Founded in 1997 by a group of friends who were inspired by the work of Muhammad Yunus and the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh, our innovations, programs and resources have helped more than 45 million people in Sub Saharan Africa, Asia, the Arab World, and the Americas begin their journey out of poverty. With microfinance and technology as our foundation, we connect people and local institutions across the globe that share our vision of shattering the barriers for the billion people trying to live on less than a dollar a day.

NESsT develops sustainable social enterprises that solve critical social problems in emerging market countries. NESsT achieves its mission by providing financial capital, training and mentoring, and access to networks, to its portfolio of high-impact social enterprises to enable them to: better plan, improve management capacity, scale, and increase their social impact.

Since beginning its work in 1997, NESsT has supported the development of over 2,600 social enterprises across Central and Eastern Europe and Latin America.

NeXii is a global impact investment advisory firm with a mission to increase the flow of capital to high impact businesses and initiatives that provide financial returns based on a primary purpose social/environmental impact mission. Nexii aims to make impact investing a reality at scale by improving the infrastructure and intermediation in the impact capital markets and establishing the meeting place for investors and efforts for sustainable social or environmental impacts in addition to financial returns. More

OFOP advocates for favorable environment of civil society and participates  regulation influencing civil society operations. OFOP supports cross-sectoral partnerships and assist NGO representatives in institutional dialogue. We cooperate with voluntary organizations, watchdogs, and think-tanks to ensure ongoing discussion on the condition of the civil sector and areas of future change. OFOP is committed to share best practice and work towards effective involvement of citizens on European level through international cooperation and trans-border initiatives.

The Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship is a not-for-profit, independent and neutral organization, founded in 1998, with the purpose to advance social entrepreneurship and to foster social entrepreneurs as an important catalyst for societal innovation and progress. The Foundation is under the legal supervision of the Swiss Federal Government and is headquartered in Cologny-Geneva, Switzerland. The Foundation provides unparalleled platforms at the national, regional and global levels for leading social innovators that highlight social entrepreneurship as a key element to address social and ecological problems in an innovative, sustainable and effective way.

SEED promotes social and environmental entrepreneurship, including through the annual SEED Awards scheme which identifies promising and innovative start-up social and environmental entrepreneurs in developing countries. SEED helps its winners to establish and scale up, providing them with business and triple bottom line planning, partnership management, and administrative assistance. In addition, SEED gathers evidence for national and international policy-makers about the barriers and enabling conditions for local entrepreneurs to contribute to the Green Economy.

Shanghai Social Innovation Park, initiated by Shanghai Civil Affairs Bureau, is an impartial, not-for-profit organization based in Shanghai that incubates social entrepreneurs worldwide to bring positive innovations to lives and societies.

sitawi is a social fund that increases the impact of organizations and companies committed to social and environmental causes. We do this by providing loans and advice, introducing a new form of social financing in Brazil.

sitawi is a nonprofit organization, and our social fund aggregates donations (from individuals, foundations and corporations) 100% destined to Social Loans.

The Skoll Centre is a leading academic entity for the advancement of social entrepreneurship worldwide. We foster innovative social transformation through education, research, and collaboration. We accomplish this by:

• Developing Talent: we offer world-class graduate education that provides students with the vision and skills to bring together market-based approaches and social innovation.
• Advancing Research: we generate research that contributes to the theory of social entrepreneurship and its practical applications to address critical global challenges whilst developing and supporting a network of academics and practitioners to disseminate this knowledge globally.
• Creating a Collaborative Hub: we connect social entrepreneurs with thought leaders and key players in business, government, and philanthropy to enhance social impact.

The Skoll Foundation was created by Jeff Skoll in 1999 to pursue his vision of a sustainable, peaceful and prosperous world. Jeff believes that strategic investments in the right people can lead to lasting social change. The Skoll Foundation's mission is to drive large-scale change by investing in, connecting and celebrating social entrepreneurs and other innovators dedicated to solving the world's most pressing problems. By identifying the people and programs already bringing positive change around the world, the Skoll Foundation empowers them to extend their reach, deepen their impact and fundamentally improve society.

Since 2007, Social Venture Group has been working to transform China through high impact philanthropy. Our multinational, bi-lingual team has extensive experience navigating the Chinese social sector and has developed a large database of high impact grassroots nonprofits across China.

Our mission is to multiply the impact of philanthropy in China by offering advisory services, education and advocacy.

Social Ventures Australia (SVA) is a non-profit organisation established in 2002 by The Benevolent Society, The Smith Family, WorkVentures and AMP Foundation. SVA invests in social change by helping increase the impact and build the sustainability of those in the social sector. Our investments are focused on high potential organisations that are fostering solutions to some of the most pressing challenges facing our community.

SVHK aims at supporting the innovative social enterprises with financial, intellectual and network resources. It is the first venture philanthropy organizations mobilizing the young professionals in diverse disciplines to contribute the expertise and network to the social enterprises. Our vision is to realize social entrepreneurship with significant showcases and to leverage all sectors especially business practitioners to achieve social goals. We deeply believe the social entrepreneurship will make profound changes to improve the society with high efficiency, effectiveness and sustainability.

SVX is a Canadian-based, impact-first, private investment platform connecting social ventures, impact funds, and impact investors in order to catalyze new investment capital towards improved social and environmental outcomes.

Applying standard and transparent listing requirements towards all users of the platform, SVX acts as an access point for listed social ventures and impact funds to connect with qualified accredited investors that desire to invest for positive social and/or environmental impact, as well as a financial return on investment.

Synergy Social Ventures is a non-profit organization investing in entrepreneurial solutions to global problems. We support early-stage social ventures in Asia working in the areas of:

• Poverty reduction through economic development
• Increasing access to essential goods and services such as clean water, food, energy, housing, affordable healthcare and improved education
• Environmental sustainability in agriculture and waste and resource management

Teach For America is the national corps of outstanding recent college graduates of all academic majors and career interests who commit two years to teach in urban and rural public schools and become leaders in the effort to expand educational opportunity. Our mission is to build the movement to eliminate educational inequity by enlisting our nation's most promising future leaders in the effort.

Teach For America has a history of alumni social entrepreneurs who were motivated by their corps experience. They have pioneered trendsetting alternative school models, created new leadership cohorts, and merged business and social goals through hybrid ventures, all while challenging the status quo and forcing competitors to follow suit.

Teach For America created the Social Entrepreneurship Initiative to help even more alumni design launch new, game-changing ventures that target educational inequity at a systemic level.

Climbing out of poverty in the developing world takes more than hard work; it takes economic opportunities. Entrepreneurs create these opportunities by identifying and capitalizing on good business ideas. TechnoServe helps them turn their visions into reality.

TechnoServe helps entrepreneurial men and women in poor areas of the developing world to build businesses that create income, opportunity and economic growth for their families, their communities and their countries.

The Foundation for Social and Economic Initiatives (FISE) is an independent non-profit organisation. It has been created in 1990 by people who in the times of communist Poland were affiliated with the democratic opposition. The Foundation is supervised by a Foundation Board chaired by Henryk Wujec (democratic opposition activist, Polish MP).

We are continuously looking for new tools of vocational development. Since 2005 we have been animating discussions among NGOs and public administration about the development of the social economy sector in Poland. We organise debates, fairs, conferences, trainings related to social economy. We published several tens of publications on this topic. We are also managing the biggest Polish internet portal on social economy www.ekonomiaspoleczna.pl and are in charge of the Standing Conference on the Social Economy (SKES) secretariat.

TREES has a mission statement of "delivering social justice through enterprise". It delivers this in two ways: the owning and running of its own social enterprises and the supporting and funding of others to establish and develop their own enterprises.

Our vision is to deliver social justice through enterprise and along with running a number of our own social enterprises, TREES promotes and supports social enterprise development through partnership working across the private, public and social enterprise sectors.

UnLtd India is a launch pad for social entrepreneurs in India. We find, fund and support exceptional individuals whose ideas, passion and entrepreneurial skills can bring about long-term solutions to India's social problems.

We're different because we engage before almost all other support organisations, and because we offer entrepreneurs a complete ecosystem of seed funding, incubation support and co-working space with which to launch their ventures.

Although much progress has been made in South Africa since 1994, for many people life has not changed. UnLtd South Africa aims to support individuals who have ideas on how to solve the BIG social challenges like poverty alleviation, job creation, health provision, provision of quality education, and the protection of children and the environment.

UnLtd's mission is to reach out and unleash the energies of people who can transform the world in which they live. We call these people social entrepreneurs. UnLtd is a charitable organisation set up by seven leading organisations that promote social entrepreneurship. UnLtd wants to support and develop the role of social entrepreneurs as a force for positive change in the United Kingdom.