Social:Echoing Green

For the electronic band, see The Echoing Green (band), for the poem see The Echoing Green Echoing Green is a global nonprofit organization that provides fellowships, seed-stage funding, and strategic support to social entrepreneurs globally.

History

Echoing Green was founded in 1987 by General Atlantic, a global growth private equity firm, to increase social impact by using the venture capital investment model.

Since its founding, Echoing Green has invested in more than 700 social entrepreneurs working in more than 75 countries, providing a total of $42 million in seed-stage funding and support systems.

Echoing Green manages three Fellowship Programs: Global Fellowship, Black Male Achievement Fellowship, and Climate Fellowship. Through the fellowship program, Echoing Green fellows are awarded $90,000 along with access to social entrepreneur professionals to run their organizations. The Global Fellowship supports social entrepreneurs who are connected to the needs and potential solutions that may work for their communities. The Climate Fellowship, created in partnership with the ZOOM Foundation in 2013, supports those who are working on climate change reform. The Black Male Achievement Fellowship, created in partnership with the Open Society Foundation in 2012, supports individuals working on issues that affect black men and boys in the United States.

Past Echoing Green Fellows include the founders of Teach for America, City Year, College Summit, Citizen Schools, One Acre Fund, and SKS Microfinance.

Leadership

Cheryl Dorsey is the President of Echoing Green. She received an Echoing Green Fellowship in 1992 for her work with Family Van, a mobile health unit in Boston. In 2002, Dorsey took over leadership at Echoing Green and turned it into a nonprofit organization. She has served in two presidential administrations as a White House Fellow and Special Assistant to the U.S. Secretary of Labor (1997-98); Special Assistant to the Director of the Women's Bureau of the U.S. Labor Department (1998-99); and Vice Chair for the President's Commission on White House Fellowships (2009-present).

Board of Director Co-Chairs are David Hodgson, Managing Director of General Atlantic, and Maya Ajmera, President and CEO of Society for Science & The Public and Publisher for Science News.

Publications

Be Bold: Create a Career with Impact, was co-authored by Echoing Green's Lara Galinsky and Cheryl Dorsey in 2007. This book aims to inspire young social entrepreneurs to create a job and life focusing on social impact.

Work on Purpose was written by Echoing Green's Lara Galinsky and tells the stories of five social entrepreneurs and expands on their journey, struggles, and successes.

Notable Fellows

• Michelle Obama, first African-American First Lady of the United States was the 1993 Global Fellow for her work as Executive Director for the Chicago office of Public Allies.

• Wendy Kopp, 1991 Global Fellow and Founder of Teach For America, a national teaching corps that recruits college graduates to teach at public schools serving low-income communities in the United States.

• Vikram Akula, 1998 Global Fellow, founded SKS Microfinance, whose mission is to reduce poverty in India by applying business practices to the microfinance field.

• Kennedy Odede and Jessica Posner, 2010 Global Fellows, founded Shining Hope for Communities whose mission is to combat extreme poverty and gender inequality in urban slums.

• Michael Brown and Alan Khazei, 1991 Global Fellows, co-founded City Year, a national service organization that connects high-poverty public schools to service corps members who implement targeted programs for students.

• Fred Swaniker and Chris Bradford (African Leadership Academy), founders of African Leadership Academy, a residential, secondary institution located in the outskirts of Johannesburg, South Africa.

• Tom Osborn, 2014 Climate Fellow, founder of Greenchar and Echoing Green's youngest fellow, sells clean-burning briquettes and smokeless cook stoves to reduce Deforestation in Kenya.

• Diana Propper De Callejon received the first Echoing Green Fellowship in 1990. She worked with Cultural Survival Enterprises with the goal of creating an economic base and livelihood for Amazon residents not based on deforestation.

• Felix Lloyd, 2007 Global Fellow, founded for-profit social enterprise Skill-Life, Inc., whose mission is to use internet gaming to create financial literacy learning opportunities for America's youth.

• Clementine Chambon, 2016 Climate Fellow, founder of Oorja Solutions, a social enterprise active in deploying mini-grids to provide clean energy access to off-grid communities in rural India.