Amanda Rohde (stock photo)
Fast Company Magazine announces 2006 Social Capitalist Awards winners
Delicious Reddit

DECEMBER 17, 2005
By Happynews Staff

A book broker, a fair-trade advocate, a video activist network and an agricultural innovator are among the 25 winners of the 2006 Fast Company/Monitor Group Social Capitalist Awards.
The program honors non-profits, or "social entrepreneurs," who combine creativity and ingenuity with business-solutions to address the most challenging social problems today, ranging from poor healthcare in developing nations to unequal education access, homelessness, unemployment and substance abuse in the United States.
The Social Capitalist Awards winners will be featured in Fast Company's January 2006 issue, appearing on newsstands on December 27.
2006 Fast Company/Monitor Group Social Capitalist Winners:
ACCION International (Boston, Mass.), micro-lender to the poor
BELL (Dorchester, Mass.), after-school and summer educator
Calvert Social Investment Foundation (Bethesda, Md.), social investment vehicle
Citizen Schools (Boston, Mass.), after-school educator
City Year (Boston, Mass.) youth service corps.
College Summit, Inc. (Washington, D.C.), college access system for low-income students
First Book (Washington, D.C.), book broker to kids literacy programs
Grameen Foundation USA (Washington, D.C.), microfinance engine
Heifer International (Little Rock, Ark.), agricultural innovator
Housing Partnership Network, Inc. (Boston, Mass.), housing financier
Jumpstart (Boston, Mass.), early education mentoring program
KickStart (San Francisco, Calif.), agricultural technology provider
New Community Corp. (Newark, N.J.), community developer
New Leaders for New Schools (New York, N.Y.), transforming the urban principalship
PATH (Seattle, Wash.,), global health-care partner
Pioneer Human Services (Seattle, Wash.), reclaiming the lives of people on the margins of society
Raising a Reader (Menlo Park, Calif.), children's literacy program
Rare (Arlington, Va.), environmental conservation promoter
Room to Read, San Francisco, Calif., library builder in poor nations
Rubicon Programs Inc. (Richmond, Calif.), one-stop solution to homlessness
Teach for America (New York, N.Y.), education service corps.
Transfair USA (Oakland, Calif.), fair-trade certifier
Unitus (Redmond, Wash.), global microfinance accelerator
WITNESS (Brooklyn, N.Y.), human rights organization
Working Today (Brooklyn, N.Y.), independent worker advocate
Investor's Guide to Giving
"We applaud the efforts and business acumen of this year's Social Capitalist Awards winners, who are not just do gooders dedicated to solving the world's problems, they are business people of vision who have created organizations worthy of imitation in both the non-profit and for-profit sectors," said Mark Vamos, editor of Fast Company. "By approaching social capitalism in a rigorous, data-driven fashion, our evaluation process reveals the truly amazing nature of these organizations.
"And while rating non-profits is controversial, Fast Company thinks it is a necessary step for the sector to grow and improve," Vamos said. "Frankly, it's a way to see that these excellent organizations get the recognition they deserve."
Fast Company partners with the Monitor Group, a global strategy-consulting firm, to select the award winners. Monitor Group created the first methodology to compare non-profits of different sizes and ages across social sectors.
The Monitor Group manages the evaluation process for the awards program and measures each organization's work in five categories: social impact, entrepreneurship, innovation, aspiration and growth, and sustainability.
"Prior to the Social Capitalist Awards, no ranking process existed to directly compare these kinds or organizations," said Mark Fuller, chairman and CEO of Monitor Group. "Our evaluation measures the impact and effectiveness of these non-profits, making the Social Capitalist Awards a robust source of guidance for performance-oriented leaders of such organizations, as well as a donor's guide for those who want their charitable dollars to get the highest 'social' return possible."
Rigorous Evaluation
Of the 240 2006 Social Capitalist Award nominees, 125 agreed to participate in an evaluation process, which required them to submit two years of audited financials, tax filings and online surveys and to participate in a 90-minute interview with the nomination board.
Winners will be collectively recognized at a ceremony in New York City, on Thurs., Jan. 12, 2006. This year, The Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship, started by Klaus Schwab, founder of the World Economic Forum, will pick a winner from the Social Capitalists list to receive a free trip to Davos and join its network of global social entrepreneurs.
About Fast Company and Monitor Group
Fast Company, founded in 1996, is a magazine for and about the creative class. It is a journal of change and changemakers, dynamic, compelling leaders in both the for-profit and non-profit spheres who are making dramatic innovations to shape the future.
The Monitor Group is a family of professional services firms, linked by shared ownership, management philosophy, and knowledge assets. Each entity in Monitor's global network is dedicated to providing products and services that fundamentally enhance the competitiveness of its clients.