Jeff's Story
For me, philanthropy is all about making a positive difference in the world by devoting resources and time to causes I believe in. As I’ve said many times in the past, I support causes where “a lot of good comes from a little bit of good,” or, in other words, where the positive social returns significantly outstrip the amount of time and money invested.
At the Skoll Foundation, we believe social entrepreneurs are particularly good at driving this kind of highly leveraged social change. Both the Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship and the Skoll World Forum on Social Entrepreneurship were created to recognize and support the world’s leading social entrepreneurs. The Foundation’s approach – to invest in, connect and celebrate social entrepreneurs – reflects my belief that it’s not just about money, but about helping bring together key partners for change and telling great stories about effective change. The Skoll World Forum is the cornerstone of this connect and celebrate work.
Now in its 7th year, the Skoll World Forum has become the premier global event for social entrepreneurship. While the early years revolved around issues of definition and building the field, the Forum has increasingly become a showcase to highlight the large scale impact social entrepreneurs are having on the big challenges facing the planet. Having impact on these issues – climate change, water scarcity, public health, conflict, and more – requires strong coalitions of partners, and the Forum has evolved to reflect that. Leading social entrepreneurs now interact at the Forum with key government officials, social finance professionals, academics, philanthropic funders and other key ecosystem players who can help them scale their impact.
The Skoll World Forum creates unique opportunities for social entrepreneurs to find the partners and tools they need drive their impact forward. It’s about helping those with the best ideas and most effective organizations accelerate their impact. At the Forum, every delegate counts. Everyone has something he or she can contribute to help catalyze solutions to the big challenges we face. We look forward to seeing you in Oxford.
Jeff Skoll, Founder and Chairman, Skoll Foundation and Participant Media.
