Social Entrepreneur API

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Lifting the Social Sector: Fellowship and Award Programs Collaborate to Make Data about Social Entrepreneurs More Accessible

Civic Ventures, The Draper Richards Foundation, ideablob, PopTech, The Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship, and the Skoll Foundation Join Forces

San Francisco, CA - September 2, 2009 - Civic Ventures (sponsor of The Purpose Prize), The Draper Richards Foundation, ideablob, PopTech, The Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship, and The Skoll Foundation have pooled their data to create an open database of information about social entrepreneurs.

The Social Entrepreneur API (Application Programming Interface) is the first open database of information about social entrepreneurs who have won fellowships and awards from social enterprise funders. Officially launching today at the Social Capital Markets Conference (SOCAP09), the Social Entrepreneur API is cited as an example of "best practices" in collaboration and open source business. The open database allows philanthropists, investors, press, and fellow entrepreneurs to find social entrepreneurs based on keyword, location, cause area, population served, and a variety of other factors.

"We are delighted that Purpose Prize winners and fellows are featured in the Social Entrepreneur API," says David Bank, Editor of Civic Venture's Encore.org. "It's a great tool for exploring social innovation as an encore career."

"The Draper Richards Foundation is pleased to be part of this opportunity to direct resources and funding toward organizations with innovative models and strong leadership teams – a combination that we have found drives rapid and important social change," says Anne Marie Burgoyne, Portfolio Director of The Draper Richards Foundation.

Social Actions, a nonprofit initiative that has worked on numerous open source collaborations, convened the groups and built the Social Entrepreneur API with seed funding from the Peery Foundation. Social Edge, a program of the Skoll Foundation, will be one of the first organizations to make use of the Social Entrepreneur API in the form of a search engine on its web site.

"Social Edge is excited to host the Social Entrepreneur API search because it makes this incredibly talented pool of vetted social entrepreneurs easier for funders, the media, and others to find," says Jill Finlayson of Social Edge. "By showcasing successful social entrepreneurs, such as the winners of the Skoll Awards for Social Entrepreneurship, the API supports the sharing of best practices and helps aspiring and emerging social entrepreneurs to scale their ventures."

"This is an exciting step forward for social enterprise and social investing," says Lucy Bernholz, founder and president of Blueprint Research and Design, a leading consulting firm for nonprofit organizations. "The kind of technology-enabled coordination and data-sharing that the Social Entrepreneur API facilitates will hopefully be a hallmark of the future."

The Social Entrepreneur API is available immediately for any third party developers to build web applications, widgets, and search engines that distribute information about social entrepreneurs.

For more information about using, building, or joining the Social Entrepreneur API, visit http://www.socialentrepreneurapi.org.

Press Contact:

Christine Egger
Founding Team Member, Social Actions
Tel: 248-787-4917
Email: christine@socialactions.com