Fund Seeks to Draw Attention to 'Social Entrepreneurs'

The Skoll Foundation, in Palo Alto, Calif., is seeking to attract attention and money to groups that use business techniques to solve social problems around the world.

The foundation -- started by eBay's first president, Jeffrey S. Skoll -- has given Oregon Public Broadcasting $1.7-million to help pay for a four-hour documentary called "The New Heroes," which profiles people working to improve lives and living conditions in a dozen locations around the world.

The documentary series will be broadcast on stations nationwide starting June 28.

The show, hosted by the actor Robert Redford, includes profiles of a pair of inventors whose foot-operated irrigation pump is helping Kenyan farmers increase their yields, and of a lens manufacturer who has sharply reduced the cost of cataract surgery in India.

The foundation is also encouraging people to organize group viewings of the show at their homes in advance of the documentary's June 28 broadcast debut. People who sign up to hold such "house parties" can contact the foundation to receive a free, two-hour DVD version of the program. The Skoll fund has also promised to match up to $100,000 donated by people who attend such group viewings and want to support the charities they see in the documentary.

Sandy Herz, the foundation's vice president of marketing and communications, says the house-party idea "merges television and the Internet to create a new kind of grass-roots philanthropy." The foundation is hoping for 500 gatherings.

Individuals can register to hold a house party by going to the Web site http://www.thenewheroes.org.

The Skoll Foundation also plans to publish an electronic newsletter for people who go to the house parties. "We want to cultivate these groups over time and have them grow," says Ms. Herz.