"My dream with Social Edge is to have social entre-preneurs around the world connect and network with each other.” – Why building a community henhouse in Burkino Faso can teach you important lessons in develop-ment work and how online communities can help push the social entrepreneurship sector.

Victor d’Allant, Executive Director - Social Edge, an initiative of the Skoll Foundation, Palo Alto, California, USA

While travelling and interviewing people in Africa, Asia and Australia for the last few months, we often experienced that they would be much more effective if they could learn more from each other’s experiences. If they had a medium to exchange their knowledge or even a place where they could ask who already solved their problem, they would not need to reinvent the wheel again and again.

When we met Victor d’Allant in Palo Alto we had the feeling that we finally found a tool that has the potential to help many people around the world work more efficiently and increase their positive impact. Victor runs Social Edge, a global online community where social entrepreneurs, non-profit professionals and other practi-tioners of the social sector con-nect to network, learn, inspire and share knowledge and re-sources. The platform’s strong conceptual and technical con-nection in Silicon Valley and the strong backing of the founder, Jeff Skoll, are further factors increasing the success chances.

Even so, Victor shared with us that a few challenges remain, as the platform was launched quite recently –in the summer of 2003. Social Edge is still evolving, based on the input from its community to make the platform as practical as positive. Every entrepreneur that benefits from the platform brings Social Edge one step closer to its mission and increases Victor’s satisfaction.

Enjoy Victor’s selected thoughts and statements from our discussion below. You may be able to read more about his work and different initiatives launched through Social Edge in our book “MyImpact”.

Victor d’Allant’s selected quotations:
"When I volunteered in a hospital in Burkina Faso, a young boy died in my arms simply because he didn’t have access to basic medical care. I was shocked when I realized how unfair this situation was. I decided to find ways to help the world."

“I strongly believe in entrepreneurship in general, especi-ally in social entrepreneurship. When I was a teenager in Paris, I raised enough money to build a community hen-house in Burkina Faso. I built it and then gave it to the community for free. It was the wrong thing to do. I should have worked with a local entrepreneur who would have nurtured it over the long term.”

"As a journalist I was mainly reporting on socio-economic issues in developing areas, which is basically a polite way to say "starving kids"."

"When I had my own children, I realized once again how we, in the Western world, were fortunate to have access to everything we possibly need. So, the question for me became again: what can I do to help others?"

"As CEO of Ascribe Newswire, I have been helping non-profits get access to mainstream media. Despite fairly limited resources, we were quite successful."

"Skoll gives me the best of all worlds: an entrepreneur’s vision that I like very much and the right resources to accomplish our goals."

"When the executive recruiter called me, I remember thinking how fortunate I was to be offered a job that is not only fascinating, but one where I could use many aspects of my background. With Social Edge, it feels as if everything that I have done in the past can benefit our online community - international development, WHO experience, World Bank, MBA, print media, online experi-ence, the fact that I learned several languages... It is like a puzzle where all pieces finally fit.”

"I often wonder: Are we doing everything we can? Can we do better? Are we big enough? Are we missing opportu-nities?"

"My dream with Social Edge is to have social entrepre-neurs around the world connect and network with each other. I want to make sure that Social Edge brings real value to them. I want to experience more moments like when a member of our community found an online dis-cussion so helpful that he printed it out and posted it on a bulletin board in the Calcutta office of his NGO."

Some background on Victor d’Allant:
Victor grew up in Paris and early on started to travel around the world, mostly in developing countries. Very early in his life he did an internship at a hospital in Burkina Faso and later returned to build a community hen-house in the Sahel zone. Victor first re-ceived a B.A. and an M.A. in social anthro-pology from the Sorbonne in Paris, before starting his career as a Paris-based photo-journalist reporting on economic and social issues from Brazil, India, Turkey, Yemen and Bangladesh. He received the Air France Award for Photojournalism and his work was exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art, Paris.

His work as a cultural and business anthropologist included field research on French truck drivers working in the Mid-dle East, mental health issues in India for the World Health Organization and agricultural development in Burkina Faso for the World Bank. Later on Victor built and ran his own international media consultancy, helping communications companies and technology-based ventures expand their global operations.

Victor moved to California and received his MBA from the Haas School of Business at Berkeley. His following exe-cutive positions have included Chief Executive Officer of Ascribe, a public interest newswire, and Vice President - Business Development of AudioBasket, a provider of personalized audio news on the Internet. He was also Advertising Sales Director for Reader's Digest in Europe and Managing Director of San Francisco Magazine.

Today, as Executive Director of Social Edge within the Skoll Foundation, Victor d’Allant is responsible for building a global online community where social entrepreneurs, non-profit professionals and other practitioners of the social sector connect to network, learn, inspire and share resources.

Some background on Social Edge:
Social Edge is a program of the Skoll Foundation that was inspired by Jeff Skoll's commitment to connecting people with shared passions. The site launched in June 2003 with the mission to:
1. Connect social entrepreneurs, their partners and allies to discuss cutting-edge issues shaping the field
2. Foster frank dialogue, mutual respect and a sense of community among all in the sector
3. Promote learning from the best, promising and disastrous practices
The mission of Social Edge is to inform social entrepreneurs about news and opportunities, educate them with a set of information resources in the field and connect them to each other and the broader community with tools and services that support their work. The objectives of Social Edge evolve around creating understanding of social entrepre-neurship, increasing networking and collaboration, streng-thening knowledge and tools in the sector, and attracting new resources for social entrepreneurs.

Some background on the Skoll Foundation:
The Skoll Foundation was created in 1999 by Jeff Skoll, who was the first employee and first president of eBay, to pursue his vision of a world where all people, regardless of geography, background or economic status, enjoy and employ the full range of their talents and abilities. The organisation’s mission is to advance systemic change to benefit com-munities around the world by inves-ting in, connecting and celebrating social entrepreneurs. Its approach to philanthropy is based on Jeff Skoll’s belief that strategic investments in the right people can lead to lasting social change.
The Skoll Foundation encompasses two separate corpo-rations: a private foundation legally known as The Skoll Foundation – Social Edge is one of its main projects – and a public charity called The Skoll Fund. The Skoll Fund, created in 1999, is a supporting organization associated with Com-munity Foundation Silicon Valley of San Jose, California. Each entity is governed by its own Board of Directors, and the private foundation, launched in 2002, manages the day-to-day operations, grant making and programs of both entities. Both organizations were founded to support social entrepreneurship and together they are known as the Skoll Foundation.

If you would like to engage with the work of Victor d’Allant or get to know more about Social Edge please visit www.socialedge.org,
If you want to know more about the Skoll Foundation please visit www.skollfoundation.org, or, for more specific opportunities, contact joanna.stefanska@myimpact.ch or wolfgang.hafenmayer@myimpact.ch directly.