Santa Clara University

GSBI™ Partners

The GSBI™ continues to evolve and grow with the support of strategic partnerships.

Institutional Partner

The Skoll Foundation's Award for Social Entrepreneurship has enabled the GSBI™ to focus on systemization and growth.  With the 3 year grant of $1.08 million the GSBI™ will continue its vertical sector strategy, expand its geographic coverage and disseminate lessons learned from the program.

Discovery Partners

Discovery partners are typically existing organizations and networks.  They may sponsor competitions and offer fellowships, or other institutional support.  These partners nurture existing networks of social entrepreneurs that have been identified through these programs, awards, and other initiatives.  They provide an initial screen to funnel high potential social entrepreneurs and their organizations through the application process.  They also help in the selection and on-boarding of these ventures.  The GSBI's™ primary partner, the Skoll Foundation hosts an online application on Social Edge which is open to the public.

Discovery Partners include:

The Tech Awards is an international awards program that honors innovators from around the world who are applying technology to benefit humanity.  The awards fall into 5 categories: Health, Environment, Economic Development, Equality, and Education. 

The World Bank Development Marketplace is a competitive grant program administered by the World Bank and supported by various partners to identify and fund innovative early-stage projects with high potential for development impact.

The Grassroots Business Fund seeks to strengthen and scale innovative social enterprises that create sustainable economic opportunities for the poor, empowering and engaging them as entrepreneurs, consumers, employees, and suppliers.

The Acumen Fund is a non-profit global venture fund that uses entrepreneurial approaches to solve the problems of global poverty.  It seeks to prove that small amounts of philanthropic capital, combined with business  acumen can result in thriving enterprises that serve the poor. 

The Draper Richards Foundation provides critical support for social entrepreneurs during the start-up phase, helping outstanding people create wide-reaching social change.  

Ashoka is a global association of the world's leading social entrepreneurs - men and women with system changing solutions to the world's most urgent social problems. 

The World Resources Institute is an environmental think tank that goes beyond research to find practical ways to protect the earth and improve people's lives through its New Ventures Program.  

Social Edge is a global online community where social entrepreneurs and other practitioners in the social benefit sector connect to network, learn, inspire, and share resources. 

PopTech! identifies promising social entrepreneurs and seeks to accelerate the growth of these organizations through access to a leading edge innovation network.

Innovation Partners

Innovation Partners are an emerging component of the program.  They provide social entrepreneurs with complimentary services to strengthen operational efficiency, communication, management, metrics tracking, legal support and capital raising assistance. 

Innovation Partners include: 

Lex Mundi is the world's leading association of independent law firms.  Through its foundation, GSBI alumni have free/discounted access to more than 20,000 lawyers practicing in 160 elite law firms around the world Pro Bono Foundation.



SVT advises investors, companies and mission-driven organizations, enabling them to measure, manage and communicate their social and environmental impact.  You can read their SocialEdge blog here...

Give2Asia works with corporations, foundations and individual donors wishing to support Asian causes, it facilitates philanthropic and social investment.  

 

VC4Africa is a virtual platform for enterprises and aspiring social entrepreneurs to develop, share knowledge, and connect with finance.  Its open network is focused on collecting organizing, and distributing data and information needed to make valuable business decisions.  It is committed to advancing African entrepreneurs.

Social-Impact is an international professional development program seeking to accelerate the growth and increase the impact social entrepreneurs' project and/or organizations.

NetSuite is a leading integrated web-based business software suite, including Accounting, Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and E-commerce software.  Alumni are given complimentary licenses and implementation support.

Accenture is a global management consulting, technology services, and outsourcing company it provides value-added analytic support services for selected social enterprises.

 

Tools and Resources for Assessing Social Impact (TRASI) is a joint project of McKinsey & Co. and the Foundation Center.  The database uses 18 dimensions to classify 150 approaches to measuring the social impact of programs and investments.  This is a fantastic resource for social enterprises as they plan and assess social impact.  The GSBI's methodology, SROI Lite is one of the 150 profiles methods, it can be found by clicking here.