Global Footprint Network——Advancing the Science of Sustainability

Humans are the most successful species on the planet. But we are using more resources than the Earth can provide. We are in global ecological overshoot.

In 2003, Global Footprint Network was established to enable a sustainable future where all people have the opportunity to live satisfying lives within the means of one planet.

An essential step in creating a one-planet future is measuring human impact on the Earth so we can make more informed choices.

That is why our work aims to accelerate the use of the Ecological Footprint — a resource accounting tool that measures how much nature we have, how much we use, and who uses what.

The Ecological Footprint is a data-driven metric that tells us how close we are to the goal of sustainable living. Footprint accounts work like bank statements, documenting whether we are living within our ecological budget or consuming nature’s resources faster than the planet can renew them.

Our efforts are fueled by a future vision in which human demand on nature is monitored as closely as the stock market. A time when designers are shaping products, buildings, and cities that have one-planet Footprints. A world where all humans prosper and development succeeds because we are finally recognizing ecological constraints and using innovation to advance more than just the economic bottom line.

Making this vision a reality is our work. We provide the scientific data necessary to drive large-scale, social change.

Together with hundreds of individuals, 200 cities, 23 nations, leading business, scientists, NGO’s, academics and our 90-plus global Partners — spanning six continents — we are advancing the impact of the Footprint in the world, applying it to practical projects and sparking a global dialogue about a one-planet future and how we can facilitate change.

See more at http://www.footprintnetwork.org/en/index.php/

GES(Global Engagement Summit)

Mission
To build the capacity of the next generation of global change leaders to cross borders and partner with new communities to produce responsible, innovative, sustainable solutions to shared global problems.

History
The Global Engagement Summit began in 2005 as an attempt to develop better training for students participating in on-the-ground international development and social entrepreneurship, to put driven students in touch with one another and with innovative nonprofit leaders, and to develop a resource network to support student global change projects. Past GES delegates have developed projects related to microfinance, community development, global health, sustainable engineering, and many other change-based ideas.

In its three years, a staff of between 60-90 Northwestern University students per year has developed a curriculum featuring more than 40 workshops each year and has created numerous opportunities for project support, including, among others, internship experiences, media outlets and funding prospects through partnerships with groups like the GlobalGiving Foundation.

The GES alumni community now includes more than 400 people. Even as GES has grown, the GES founders were able to expand the idea and build a the Center for Global Engagement, a global program design center at Northwestern University which now offers credited international immersion programs.

Past Successes: 2006-2008
Over 40 countries, 50 universities, and 35 global nonprofits have been represented
GES has assisted delegates in raising over $75,000 toward their projects
GES delegates and staff have gone on to:

• Establish and participate in delegate-led sustainable projects in Guatemala, Mali, China, Mexico, Zimbabwe, Ecuador, Kenya, Uganda, Egypt, Philippines, Tanzania, Panama, India, Afghanistan, Australia, and the United States


• Impact over 100,000 people through their diverse social change projects


• Receive prestigious fellowships: Rhodes, Marshall, and Truman; Echoing Green; Northwestern Mind the Gap; Northwestern Public Interest Program; Kathryn Wasserman’s 100 Projects for Peace

The Summit
Through workshops, critical discussions, community building, and outcome resources, we ensure that our participants have the tools to move beyond their “good intentions” to produce real change.

By providing capacity-building training, GES seeks to enable Summit delegates to build the necessary conceptual and skills base for improving their projects so that they can become better-informed, responsible agents of change in the world.

GES also seeks to build the capacity of its staff. We seek to motivate staff to think deeply about issues of global development, to drive discourse on ‘youth engagement’ among peers and the larger Northwestern community, and to create an innovative, meaningful Summit for delegates from all over the world.

• Components of Capacity-Building:


• Conceptual Development


• Skills Development


• Approach and Framework Development


• Resource/Outcome Development


• Community Development

Outcomes
The Global Engagement Summit produces a set of general outcomes post-Summit for both delegates and staff.

• GES Delegates

Better-educated youth global change agents
A set of improved global problem solving projects
A growing, interconnected community of people committed to change

• GES Staff

Broader conceptual knowledge of global change sectors
Extensive opportunities for personal involvement in a student organization
Connections to a network of people committed to change
Event planning skills

See more at http://www.northwesternges.org/

Skoll World Forum

The Forum is a joint venture between The Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship at the Saïd Business School, University of Oxford and The Skoll Foundation. Both organisations share a commitment to understanding, expanding and supporting the field of social entrepreneurship.
With a focus on learning, leverage and impact, the Skoll World Forum on Social Entrepreneurship connects prominent social entrepreneurs with essential actors in the social, academic, finance, corporate and policy sectors – all working to accelerate sustainable social benefit.

About the Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship
The Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship was launched in November 2003 at the Saïd Business School, University of Oxford. The Skoll Centre exists to advance social entrepreneurship worldwide through world-class education, knowledge creation, and through brokering strategic relationships. In doing so, the Centre leverages the assets of its host School at the University of Oxford to address the defining challenges of our time. It aims to develop a research agenda that will be relevant to practitioners, policy-makers, philanthropists and those with influence on resources. The Centre acts as a network hub for social entrepreneurship, primarily through the Skoll World Forum, linking together key actors in the sector and creating new and effective partnerships for sustainable social change.

Skoll World Forum on Social Entrepreneurship
The Skoll World Forum has been held annually since 2004 at the Saïd Business School, University of Oxford. The Forum is a co-production of the Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship and the Skoll Foundation, Palo Alto, California.

Research
The Skoll Centre has developed a portfolio of research that is valuable to practitioners in the field. Research ranges across three main topics identified by practitioners as of key importance: governance; impact; resources. In each, a variety of scholarly work is being undertaken. This is disseminated in applied working papers and peer reviewed books and journals.
The University Network for Social Entrepreneurship seeks to build a global community of researchers, educators, practitioners and student leaders who are advancing teaching, research and action in Social Entrepreneurship. This is a joint collaboration of the Skoll Centre, Ashoka: Innovators for the Public, The EMES European Management Research Network and The Social Enterprise Knowledge Network (SEKN). Visit the University Network Resource Portal to access curricular materials and link to the research database.

MBA Programme and Skoll Scholarships
The Skoll Centre is committed to nurturing the social entrepreneurs of tomorrow. As part of our provision of innovative business education, the Centre trains MBA students concerned about social change to apply entrepreneurial approaches to social problems.
Each year, the Skoll Centre awards five full scholarships to individuals working in the field who wish to enter the one-year full-time Oxford MBA Programme . Skoll Scholarships are designed to give social entrepreneurs the knowledge, skills and networks they need to turn ideas into reality; and deepen their conviction for doing so.

Further information
The Skoll Centre, Said Business School

Ten Nonprofit Funding Models

For-profit executives use business models—such as “low-cost provider” or “the razor and the razor blade"—as a shorthand way to describe and understand the way companies are built and sustained. Nonprofit executives, to their detriment, are not as explicit about their funding models and have not had an equivalent lexicon—until now.

BENEFICIARIES ARE NOT CUSTOMERS One reason why the nonprofit sector has not developed its own lexicon of funding models is that running a nonprofit is generally more complicated than running a comparable size for-profit business. When a for-profit business finds a way to create value for a customer, it has generally found its source of revenue; the customer pays for the value. With rare exceptions, that is not true in the nonprofit sector. When a nonprofit finds a way to create value for a beneficiary (for example, integrating a prisoner back into society or saving an endangered species), it has not identified its economic engine. That is a separate step.

TEN FUNDING MODELS Devising a framework for nonprofit funding presents challenges. To be useful, the models cannot be too general or too specific. For example, a community health clinic serving patients covered by Medicaid and a nonprofit doing development work supported by the U.S. Agency for International Development are both government funded, yet the type of funding they get, and the decision makers controlling the funding, are very different. Lumping the two together in the same model would not be useful. At the same time, designating a separate model for nonprofits that receive Title I SES funds, for example, is too narrow to be useful.

1. HEARTFELT CONNECTOR

2. BENEFICIARY BUILDER

3. MEMBER MOTIVATOR

4. BIG BETTOR

5. PUBLIC PROVIDER

6. POLICY INNOVATOR

7. BENEFICIARY BROKER

8. RESOURCE RECYCLER

9. MARKET MAKER

10. LOCAL NATIONALIZER

IMPLICATIONS FOR NONPROFITS In the current economic climate it is tempting for nonprofit leaders to seek money wherever they can find it, causing some nonprofits to veer off course. That would be a mistake. During tough times it is more important than ever for nonprofit leaders to examine their funding strategy closely and to be disciplined about the way that they raise money. We hope that this article provides a framework for nonprofit leaders to do just that.

See more at http://www.ssireview.org/articles/entry/ten_nonprofit_funding_models/