Echoing Green's 2008 Fellows

After much anticipation, we are proud to announce the 2008 Echoing Green Fellows! This year’s class of twenty-seven social entrepreneurs is not only one of the youngest in recent history, with nine fellows under twenty-six years old, but it is also one of our largest. The group currently represents nineteen start-up organizations targeting social issues around the world in the areas of community improvement, economic development, education, the environment, health, human rights, and legal advocacy.

In addition to the regional diversity of the class, whose impact will be felt across the U.S. as well as in China, India, Israel, and Mexico, this year’s group has found unique ways to apply business solutions to social issues. Echoing Green President Cheryl Dorsey notes that the class of 2008 is “breaking through the boundary that separated the private sector from the nonprofit sector,” pointing to the more than half of our fellows following this trend, and two in particular who will actually be members of the for-profit sector. One example of this kind of innovation includes Jessamyn Waldman’s Hot Bread Kitchen, a career-building baking business that relies on the skills and knowledge of traditional recipes of immigrant women. Likewise, Elizabeth Scharpf’s Sustainable Health Enterprises (SHE) addresses economic disparities caused by lack of access to affordable sanitary napkins by creating female-run franchises abroad, while Will Bradshaw and Reuben Teague’s Green Coast Enterprises will be constructing environmentally sound, disaster resistant buildings that are affordable to middle and low-income Gulf Coast residents.

This year’s innovators represent a growing number of young social entrepreneurs entering the field of dreams and hope despite the many uphill runs required. But this isn’t indicative of an exceptional wide-eyed, naive optimism on the part of younger generations. On the contrary, this pool of talented thinkers is beginning to recognize their potential to spark real social change, having witnessed successful predecessors with ground-breaking ideas just like theirs. The class of 2008 represents not only our long-term belief in this potential, but the beginnings of the kind of social change Echoing Green hopes to spark in the work we do; forming a society of empowered everyday individuals striving to bring about real change to the world’s pressing social issues. Since 1987, we’ve invested $27 million in more than 450 leaders touching the lives of millions around the world. This year’s class is just a reminder that we’re that much closer to reaching our goal. So, to the 2008 Echoing Green Fellows, thank you and congratulations for helping to create a culture of change.