Thank you for rating nominees for the 2005 Marketplace, where social entrepreneurs will compete for $100,000 in funding. You exceeded our expectations by providing over 200,000 total ratings. This means each project received more than 1600 ratings, which is tremendous exposure for every one of the nominated social entrepreneurs.

The highest rated projects, which will be featured at the Marketplace at the Conference on Borderless Giving on March 3, 2005, are listed below. We are now hosting a weeklong virtual conversation about this process -- please come and join us at Social Edge's Discussion Board.

Resources

• See if your favorite project is a finalist!
   
• Read more about the Conference on Borderless Giving

In recent weeks, incoming news from project coordinators in Southeast Asia has been remarkably positive.

Thanks to the generosity of GlobalGiving donors, we are pleased to report that a number of critical relief/reconstruction projects have received full funding and achieved their target objectives:

Courtesy of Give India

Resources

• Support tsunami relief and reconstuction
   
• View more project updates
   

As seen in Alliance Magazine
December 2004

Orphaned himself when Idi Amin's henchmen killed his father, Father Centurio Olaboro has spent much of his life caring for other orphans. He founded the Great Aubrey School in the Tororo district of rural Uganda which provides food, shelter and education to 384 children who have lost parents to HIV/AIDS. Another 400 local children also attend the school.

But the school needs a dormitory to house its girls, and such a project is very expensive. For people active at the local level like Father Olaboro, it can be almost impossible to tap the large mainstream sources of financial assistance. Father Olaboro's dormitory for orphaned girls is one of the many projects sponsored by GlobalGiving, an organization that functions somewhat like an eBay of development assistance.

But instead of stamp collections, small-scale but high impact grassroots development projects around the world are posted on the GlobalGiving website (www.globalgiving.com). Individuals, corporations or foundations can browse through the project listings, click a button to contribute to their choice of project, then give anything from a few dollars to thousands. The projects that people like most get the most funding. Donors can then communicate with local project leaders and receive updates on the project.

Resources

• Make a donation a gift to a friend, colleague or family member.
   
• Read more about "Housing & Education for AIDS orphaned girls"
   
• Support children with HIV/AIDS by donating to the "Vulnerable Children's Fund"