When it comes to online giving market places, the adage is: If you build it, few will come. So how do you drive enough people to such online spaces to make them work? In this talk, sponsored by the Stanford Center for Social Innovation, William Meehan, McKinsey senior director, talks about the opportunities and challenges in making online giving marketplaces successful, and what lies ahead in this area for organizations dedicated to making a genuine sustained impact in communities.

Kiva has created an online marketplace that allows ordinary citizens to help specific entrepreneurs around the world thrive with as little as $25. How did Kiva get the critical mass it needed to make its operations a go? How does it work with nonprofits, entrepreneurs, and lenders through the online format? In this talk, sponsored by the Stanford Center for Social Innovation, Kiva President Premal Shah talks about how the organization got started, how it functions, and how it plans to grow.

Neither markets nor charity alone are sufficient to help the world's poorest people. In this interview with host Sheela Sethuraman, Jacqueline Novogratz, founder of the Acumen Fund, describes how a combination of patient capital plus management support is making a difference in tackling poverty in Africa and Asia. Novogratz shares experiences and anecdotes from her recently published book, "The Blue Sweater: Bridging the Gap Between Rich and Poor in an Interconnected World."

On the one hand, biofuels offer a green substitute against petrol-based fuels such as gasoline. On the other, they are still expensive to produce and are causing a steep inflation in food prices the world over. A panel of experts debates the root causes of the increase in food prices, and the need to produce biofuels vis-a-vis the measures to tackle the economic and political side effects of its production.

Jim Cramer, co-founder of TheStreet.com, talks about the democratization of financial data access and its impact of on the investment landscape. He discusses how the information advantages that once underpinned hedge fund activities have given way to a freer flow of data. Cramer dissects the fate of players that failed to grasp the significance of the changes caused by the web. He also shares why he regards tech stocks as poison.

Financing the growth of operations to achieve major scale is undoubtedly the biggest challenge facing social entrepreneurs. This panel explores the current challenges and constraints in mobilizing capital flow to compelling social enterprises. Also discussed are a range of strategies and channels available to social entrepreneurs for financing growth plans, including emerging alternatives to create new asset classes (hybrid, for-profit, and for-benefit models).

In a climate resistant to government spending on social causes, the focused donations of billionaire philanthropists may be the greatest force for societal change in our world. So says journalist Matthew Bishop in this Stanford Center for Social Innovation sponsored talk. Discussing his recent book, Philanthrocapitalism, Bishop shares anecdotes, analysis, and profiles of a small group of people who are influencing the lives of many by bringing their success in capitalism to giving, rather than making money.

Social entrepreneurs discuss how they use for-profit activities to fund their organizations' missions in this session of the Skoll World Forum. These are done in combination with, and in addition to, nonprofit activities. From profitably providing water to poor villagers to training street children to run business, and from franchising medical care to creating a transparent market place for handmade goods, these entrepreneurs show that business and nonprofit can mix well.

What does Wall Street make of the trends in cleantech, corporate environmental strategy, and emerging carbon markets? In this talk, sponsored by the Stanford Center for Social Innovation, two Goldman Sachs managers discuss how their investment firm is making the financing of corporate deals contingent upon the incorporation of increasingly stringent environmental criteria.

Venture philanthropy and other new products and trends indicate that philanthropy has changed dramatically over the past 10 years. Donors are younger than ever before and foundations have become increasingly professionalized. In this discussion, sponsored by the Stanford Center for Social Innovation, philanthropy expert Peter Hero interviews Laura Arrillaga, a leader in Silicon Valley, about developments that are now making philanthropy a powerhouse for social change.