Weekend Entrepreneur Links: Big Money Edition

by Nathaniel Whittemore · 2010-09-27 11:46:00 UTC
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The last week saw a lot of very cool activity -- specifically a lot of big financial activity. I believe that our field needs more capital more than just about anything else, and while not all of this money (or any of it really) is specifically aimed a "social entrepreneurship" per se, it's all for companies that are showing investors and entrepreneurs how much opportunity there is in solving big social problems.

Troubled Times: When Mark Zuckerberg's Inspiring, Courageous Generosity Is Not Good Enough: This piece perfectly echoes what I wrote about Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg's $100 million gift to the Newark school district. The media coverage was so despicably cynical and stupid I could barely read it. This gift is one of the least sexy, most driven I've seen -- certainly from someone with wealth so young. We should be pumped. Period.

Omidyar Network Gives $55 Million to Help Government Transparency, Mobile Technology: The Omidyar Network, the joint philanthropy and social venture capital fund started by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar, has been on a tear lately. At the Clinton Global Initiative last week, Omidyar announced a new $55 million fund to fund technology that increases government transparency or uses mobile technology to advance development.

Sequoia-Backed Think Finance Gets A $90 Million Credit Line To Help Serve ‘The Unbanked’: Financial literacy (or lack their of), along with student and consumer debt are strangling America. Many of the services provided by traditional financial institutions simply aren't designed for the 60 million or so "unbanked" consumers in America. Think provides services specifically for that group, and just got a big new chunk of capital from Silicon Valley veterans Sequoia.

A Refugee Social Network: There's an App for That: This isn't a story about a big cash injection for a new startup, but it's an idea that, if they get it right, would absolutely deserve it. Refugee services, in general, are deplorable, and create a situation in which refugees are forced to rely on informal networks for support. This new social networking service would be designed to help them connect with and find people they've lost track of and more.

Photo credit: osde8info

Nathaniel Whittemore is the founder of Assetmap. Previously he was the founding director of the Northwestern University Center for Global Engagement.
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