We love it when a great idea catches on. As The Opportunity Project rolls out, we will use this section of our site to showcase projects, share what we learn, and report on our impact. We’ll learn a lot in these early years of our program and we’ll share our progress with you along the way.
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eBay Foundation and the Global Social Business Incubator: Fostering Scalable, Sustainable Social Change and Economic Opportunity
Today is International Corporate Philanthropy Day, a time each year for the private sector to raise awareness about the community-focused programs they support that create positive social change. Here at eBay Foundation, we’re recognizing the day by highlighting a new collaboration with the Global Social Business Incubator (GSBI) — an internationally renowned program, based in our own backyard,... -
Samasource’s 4th Annual Gala Raises Funds to Scale Microwork in Underemployed Regions
Today four billion people worldwide live on less than $3 a day and have no access to formal work. Our partners at Samasource believe that access to dignified work is a fundamental human right and a necessity in order to fight poverty at its roots. With the goal of providing life-changing work to more than 4,000 women and youth globally in 2012, Samasource utilized its 4th Annual Give Work Gala as...ShareTags:
- Samasource
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Learnings from SOCAP12 and the Social Impact Movement
Two years ago, Lisa Hall, President & CEO of the Calvert Foundation stood in front of a room of investors, funders, and accelerators of social impact, and quoted a well-known South African poem stating “we are the ones we’ve been waiting for.” Two years later, at this month’s Social Capital Market’s annual conference, SOCAP12, Lisa stood on this same stage for a second time and said with... -
Grameen Foundation and eBay Foundation – A Mobile Commerce Approach to Poverty Alleviation
Nearly a decade after eBay Foundation’s first grant in support of Grameen Foundation, we were delighted to see their Mobile Microfranchising initiative selected as one of the winners of our Powering Economic Opportunity: Create a World that Works competition with Ashoka Changemakers. In reconnecting with Grameen Foundation through the competition a little over a year ago, we quickly realized the...ShareTags:
- Grameen Foundation,
- Green jobs
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Winners Update: Solidarium Fair Trade and Fundación Paraguaya
A couple weeks ago, we shared a quick update on Nuru Energy and Twin Cities RISE!, two competition winners advancing innovative new models for funding and scaling their work. This week, we share the progress and achievements of Solidarium Fair Trade and Fundación Paraguaya, two of last year’s winning organizations that are, in their own unique ways, driving positive social change and creating new... -
Winners Update: Nuru Energy and Twin Cities RISE!
At this time a year ago, we announced the 15 semi-finalists of our Powering Economic Opportunity: Create a World that works competition. Now, twelve months after identifying and supporting their innovative solutions, we’re taking a look at what our winners have been up to and what great things the competition has propelled them to do. In today’s post we’ll explore the two organizations pursuing... -
Time Flies When You're Making Change!
It’s hard to believe that it’s already been a year since we launched our Powering Economic Opportunity: Create a World That Works competition with Ashoka Changemakers! At this time last year, we had just launched our worldwide search for innovative job creation solutions, and were hurtling forward to our mid-June deadline for submissions. In addition, amidst all our outreach to innovators and...ShareTags:
- Ashoka Changemakers
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Partner Update: Samasource
Last November, we announced our newest partner for change, Samasource. Founded in 2008 by Leila Janah, Samasource is a nonprofit that connects people living in poverty to work via the Internet. Since we introduced Samasource in November, the organization has connected more than 2,000 women, youth, and refugees to work, and paid out more than $1.5 million to workers. Samasource has continued to...ShareTags:
- Samasource
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Jobs, Jobs, Jobs: Trends and Insights from the Competition
Over the past several months, we have introduced each of the winners of our Powering Economic Opportunity: Create a World That Works competition with Ashoka Changemakers. From Brazil to India, Indonesia to Paraguay, and right here in the US, the winners are advancing job creation among disadvantaged populations in truly new and innovative ways, and we are pleased to support their great work. Our... -
Winner Spotlight: Twin Cities RISE!
What if someone told you that for every $1 you invested, you could receive a return of $7.24? In today’s economic climate, you may be somewhat skeptical, but probably pretty intrigued. While they aren’t making this claim to individuals like you and me (sorry to get your hopes up!), Twin Cities RISE! is demonstrating this return on investment to the State of Minnesota. They are doing this while... -
Winner Spotlight: Fundación Paraguaya
In a recent conversation with the Skoll Foundation, Martin Burt introduced himself by telling a personal story. “In March 1999 I was mayor of the capital city of Paraguay and there was a popular uprising. It was a big protest in the central plaza, and democratic forces had assembled there to ask the president to resign because he had violated the constitution. And all of a sudden then they... -
Winner Spotlight: Grameen Foundation
Take a moment and consider the following statistics: • Indonesia has a population of more than 240 million people, making it the 4th largest country in the world • The island of Java alone is home to more than 140 million residents in an area approximately the size of Florida—this makes Java one of the most densely populated places on Earth • Fully 75% of the population lives below US $2.50 per... -
Winner Spotlight: Solidarium Fair Trade
39 million people in Brazil currently live on less than $2 a day, and Tiago Dalvi of Solidarium Fair Trade is working to change that. When he spoke with Ashoka Changemakers a couple months ago, he was clear about the major transformation he envisions for Brazil. “We’re creating a movement to overcome poverty. Within four years, we’ll get more than 10,000 local producers out of poverty, and I’m... -
Winner Spotlight: Nuru Energy
The five winners from our Powering Economic Opportunity: Create a World That Works competition with Ashoka Changemakers all have diverse and innovative approaches to job creation for disadvantaged populations. Over the next several weeks, we will feature each of the winners and the creative ways they are getting more people to work. Today, we’re pleased to introduce Sameer Hajee. Through his... -
eBay and Samasource: Partnering for Change
The holidays are always a time to pause and reflect on everything we have to be thankful for. Here at eBay Foundation we certainly have a lot to be pleased about! Over the past year, we’ve worked hard (and had a lot of fun) bringing The Opportunity Project to life and while we’re happy with everything we’ve accomplished so far, we know we couldn’t have done it alone. This holiday season, we’re...ShareTags:
- Samasource
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The Opportunity Project at the 2011 Clinton Global Initiative
Every year, President Bill Clinton convenes global leaders to devise and implement innovative solutions to some of the world’s most pressing challenges. Since 2005, these Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) Annual Meetings have brought together nearly 150 current and former heads of state, 18 Nobel Prize laureates, hundreds of leading CEOs, heads of foundations, major philanthropists, directors of the... -
The World’s Most Innovative Solutions to Power Economic Opportunity
Identify innovative solutions that are igniting new economic opportunities and creating jobs for disadvantaged populations – that was our goal this past March when we launched the Powering Economic Opportunity: Create a World That Works competition with Ashoka Changemakers. Now, almost a year after developing our initial concept for this competition, we have completed our search and are thrilled... -
There's an App for That
As The Opportunity Project (TOP) was conceived and launched, one idea continued to resonate: eBay’s human capital is the most valuable resource in the company. And, if The Opportunity Project can help match the needs of our nonprofit partners with the skills and expertise of our employee volunteers (Team TOP), amazing things will happen. Hemal Doshi recently led a team of eBay engineers in a... -
Meet our Competition Early Entry Winners
Blog reposted from the Idea Exchange.
eBay Foundation and Ashoka’s Changemakers® are proud to announce the three Early Entry Prize winners in the Powering Economic Opportunity: Create a World that Works competition!
We received a record 164 solutions—entered by the May 11 early entry deadline. Entries came in from 36 countries around the world; Africa, Latin America, and Asia are strongly represented, providing more than three-fourths of the submissions so far.
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- Ashoka Changemakers
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Q&A with Lauren Moore, Executive Director, eBay Foundation
What is The Opportunity Project? It’s a new eBay Foundation program that is a natural extension of our belief in creating opportunity and making a difference in the world. It’s an opportunity to bring together our Foundation resources, our business expertise, and the passion of our people to create positive impact in communities where it’s most needed. Our business does these things already, and... -
Employing the World's Most Innovative Ideas to Create a World that Works
Blog reposted from the IdeaExchange
We are all well aware of the economic crises around the world … and the ripple effects that stem from deep unemployment and lack of access to opportunity. In part, the revolutions in Egypt and Tunisia were sparked because young people couldn’t find the means to support themselves—not because they didn’t want to, but because there were no jobs. In this growing...
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- Ashoka Changemakers
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Building a Dream Team
I’ve always known that our employees have big hearts. I’ve worked with teams of employee volunteers who have built houses for low income families, assembled blankets for patients at a children’s hospital, and served food for the homeless. Employees who volunteer at events like this often tell me how proud they are to work for a company that encourages them to give back. As we launch our Team TOP... -
Bringing The Opportunity Project to Life
Can you remember what the world wide web was like 15 years ago? When eBay was founded in 1995, it truly was a “disruptive innovation” completely changing the way people shop. As we’ve worked to bring The Opportunity Project to life, we’ve considered how eBay brought economic opportunities to people who never had them before. People who faced barriers to bringing their products to market, whether...
