Acumen Fund is seeking passionate people who are pursuing a career in venture philanthropy for their year long fellowship program.  This program offers an opportunity to experience working with Acumen Fund's portfolio organizations in Kenya, Uganda, India, Pakistan and Tanzania and would be suitable for those seeking to gain a further understanding of global poverty problems before going on to effect change through corporate work or social entrepreneurship.

The application process is now open for 2010-2011 fellows, who would begin placement in September 2010. Applications are due on November 5, 2009.  

How can social entrepreneurs drive the adoption of their mobile activism tools? Participants in Ashoka’s Social Entrepreneurship Twitter chat identified several key themes. Broadly speaking, the key drivers of adoption fall into three categories: design, distribution and context.

I can think of no better introduction to the topic of sanitation than the words of a former professor of mine: "I know its seems mundane and a little gross," she said to our class, "but what a society chooses to do with its poop and pee is one of the most important public health decisions it can make."  Despite the importance of sanitation reform in the developing world, it has to be one of the least glamorous fields out there.  Until recently, that is.

As members of the technological community, how do we make sure that we are not leaving behind low-income communities who would benefit most from technological advances? The value of new and existing inventions is so often diminished because of the inability to connect the right essential products with people who need them. In light of these challenges, AshokaTech has been established to identify and fund people like you with groundbreaking ideas and a passion for using technology for social change.

Three tech for social impact opportunities came across my desk this week:

Rising Voices Micro-Grants Applications due June 15

Rising Voices, the outreach arm of Global Voices, is now accepting project proposals for the first round of microgrant funding of up to $5,000 for new media outreach projects. Ideal applicants will present innovative and detailed proposals to teach citizen media techniques to communities that are poorly positioned to discover and take advantage of tools like blogging, video-blogging, and podcasting on their own.

For more info read David Sasaki's blog post on Global Voices.

ZeroDivide Fellowship, Class III Nominations due June 29