Spark*Blog

2009 Echoing Green Fellow Esra’a Al Shafei recently launched a video in collaboration with the Committee to Protect Bloggers to raise awareness on The March 18 Movement. Also referred to as “OR318,” The March 18 Movement was born from the death of Omid Reza Mir Sayafi, an Iranian journalist and blogger who was accused of spreading “propaganda” against the Islamic Republic of Iran and insulting religious leaders.

We were excited today to see the homepage of NPR.org feature an article about 2009 Echoing Green Fellow Jacob Colker and his organization The Extraordinaries.

We are very excited to announce that President Obama will be meeting with social innovators today in the East Room of the White House. Through the Social Innovation Fund and the White House Office of Social Innovation, the President will be announcing plans for how government can partner with social sector innovators to solve problems.    

1998 Echoing Green Fellow Daniel Tellalian and his partner, Elwood Hopkins, were featured in The June 2009 issue of Entrepreneur Magazine, in which they explore their inspiration for launching their organization called Emerging Markets Inc.

We are thrilled to congratulate Cheryl Dorsey, President of Echoing Green, for her recent appointment to the position of vice-chair on the Commission of White House Fellowships.

The Family Van, Harvard Medical School's local health clinic co-founded by Echoing Green’s President Cheryl Dorsey, has offered free counseling and tests for seventeen years to residents in Boston's low-income neighborhoods. According to the journal, BMC Medicine, a team of researchers at Harvard University studying the Family Van have found that preventive care offers an astounding economic return on investment.

This is our favorite day of the year -- the day we announce the newest class of Echoing Green Fellows. We simply can't wait to tell the world about the extraordinary work of these promising social entrepreneurs.

Are you a twitterer? Do you tweet? Are you twitty? If you think I’m writing in a foreign language, you need to join Twitter, a social networking service that’s taking the internet by storm. We know how fast paced the nonprofit and social entrepreneurship fields are, so we’ve compiled a list of twittering Echoing Green Fellows to help you stay updated. Follow them and see how they are sparking social change around the world!

Doug Ulman
Livestrong
1999 Echoing Green Fellow
@LivestrongCEO

Yesterday’s Morning Edition of NPR featured a story about the Obama administration’s newest program, the White House Office of Social Innovation and Civic Participation. This program, with $50 million in funding for the first year, will provide seed capital to new nonprofit organizations who are addressing social problems in areas such as education, housing and healthcare.

2003 Echoing Green Fellow Dan Ravicher and his organization The Public Patent Foundation, along with the American Civil Liberties Union, recently filed suit against the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for granting patents on human genes.  They believe that by awarding patents on specific human genes to a single company, the trademark office is hindering the work of other researchers.