Anew challenge from frog, MTV, the College Board, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation asks students to find the most innovative technology to help alleviate the financial burden of college.

Most students realize that to find meaningful jobs or pursue their own entrepreneurial passions they’ll have to get a college degree. In a recent report from Georgetown University, economists project that over 60 percent of jobs in 2018 will require some education or training beyond high school. Yet, entering college today is more difficult than it’s ever been. The pressure of filling out applications, taking entry exams, and actually deciding which college is the best fit for you is enough to trigger an early life crisis. But for many that’s not the biggest concern; it’s money. Paying for college is perhaps the largest obstacle facing prospective freshmen.

Attending college costs far more than it did 30 years ago. The average university asks $60,000 in tuition, and that doesn’t include the price of textbooks or the steep cost of living. For students in low or middle income families, borrowing money is the only alternative, but more are asking if accruing hefty debts so early in life is the best way to get a start. For the first time in US history, college aid debt in the country has surpassed credit card debt — the total is $830 billion. Even if a student decides to invest in higher education, navigating the confusing maze of financial aid options can be a real deterrent.

Ideally, money shouldn’t be a barrier to higher education at all; college should be equally accessible to those seeking knowledge and experience. But until that happens, prospective students ought to at least have an easier time understanding the financial reality of completing college.

My own poor grasp of the subject when I was in college included imagining Sallie Mae as an old woman, hoarding money somewhere. I would huddle with the other students on financial aid at my school to exchange advice on finding hidden scholarships so we could ensure a place in class the following semester. Finding the funding was like another course load of work — and I didn’t get credit for it like the students at Wellesly.

For most young people, there isn’t the time or the guidance needed to dispel the mystifying process of applying for college funds. According to the American Council on Education, 2 million college students don’t even apply for any of the nearly $70 billion in financial aid the government distributes each year.

So frog, MTV, the College Board, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation are teaming up to make sure students are empowered with the information they need to make sense of their financial future. We’ve launched the “Get Schooled College Affordability Challenge.” We’re asking current and aspiring college students to create digital tools that’ll connect students to funding throughout their college experience. The winning design will get a fat prize of $10,000. frog will work with three finalists to realize their ideas through a rapid collaborative design process over a 2-week period. The winner will get $100,000 to develop and bring their ideas to fruition. To submit ideas you can go here.

In the meantime, if you are looking to hear more solutions to the growing problem of college debt, this year’s Social Capital Conference (SOCAP) features a session, “Innovative Education Finance Platforms.” The panel brings together Kushal Chakrabarti of Vittana, Filipe Vergara of Lumni Finance, and Jordan Meranus of New Schools Venture Fund. I’m hoping they’ll offer alternative ideas on how inserting entrepreneurial thinking into the creation of new economic models can get students out of debt and into the classroom.

-By Kristina Loring (Cross Post from Design Mind Blog)

The SOCAP10 conference agenda (PDF) keeps growing; the latest is the addition of FAILFaire to discuss projects using mobiles and ICTs (Information and Communication Technologies) in international development that have failed spectacularly. Embracing failure with the intention of learning why an approach did not succeed is not only appropriate and logical; it’s a necessary step in developing projects that will ultimately succeed.

Sadly, open discussions by philanthropic institutions and nonprofits about failures (and yes, it happens) remain infrequent, which leads me to the Decriminalizing Fundraising session at SOCAP10. This session for the Tactical Philanthropy track will feature George Overholser of Nonprofit Finance Fund Capital Partners and Dan Pallotta of Springboard. Sean Stannard-Stockton provides a good overview of the session and a little bit on what to anticipate.

In thinking about how fundraising practices can be fundamentally changed in order to improve the nonprofit sector, I hope the speakers touch upon several points: increased transparency by nonprofits and funders, a willingness to embrace and discuss failure, and a focus on creating greater leverage opportunities.

Cultivating donors and investors requires clarity of vision on what will be accomplished with the funds. Developing a long-term relationship with the donor or investor so that financial resources will continue to flow to the organization requires a willingness to embrace transparency. Similarly, that transparency needs to be adopted within the organization raising the funds: all too often program and fundraising units fail to effectively communicate and inform each other to the detriment of their fundraising efforts.

Transparency should also encompass the organization’s successes and failures, and its overall strategic vision. Even as donors and investors look to more effectively allocate their own resources, their expectations of success are still tempered: failure happens. What’s more critical is how the organizations learn and adjust from those failures. Providing that level of transparency to existing and potential donors and investors should help in fostering longer-term relationships.

The last area I hope to hear about focuses on better ways to leverage donations and investments. In my opinion, these transactions are too camouflaged. Donors or individual investors looking for opportunities to proactively leverage their resources struggle to find this information. Organizations attempting to raise these funds often focus on the individual donor or investor. But what might happen if the organization engaged a whole group of donors and investors in a fundraising effort and provided much more visibility on how their separate contributions are leveraged? My guess is that we could see bigger investments altogether.

-By Adin Miller (Cross Post from Adin Miller Consulting)

We at Social Enterprise Associates are very excited to be a part of SoCAP10. The conference year in and year out receives high marks from investors and socially motivated entrepreneurs, so we know this is the place to be! It is important for us to see friends, hear what others are doing, exchange ideas, and foster a community to increase impact investing towards a bigger marketplace and a better world. The partnership with the SEEP Network Value Initiative Business Planning Program highlights the need to link international social enterprises to sources of investment capital to achieve sustainability and scale.

Social Enterprise Associates is a registered ‘B Corp’ providing triple bottom line management consulting. Consulting work extends throughout the U.S. and around the world to more than 30 countries. Via a consortium of consultants, the firm is dedicated to maximizing market efforts that drive social, community, and environmental betterment – fostering sustainable initiatives that lead to a better tomorrow. Sector focus includes microfinance, social enterprise, renewable energy and green construction. Project specialization includes market research, community economic development and market driven environmental advances.

Andrew ‘Drew’ Tulchin is Founder and Managing Partner. He has more than fifteen years of experience in social enterprise and microfinance. He has contributed to impact investing for more than a decade, before it was even a term. He speaks and writes frequently on the topic. He was a Researcher for the book, Compelling Returns, published by TIAA-CREF. And, he recently co-authored the paper, “Environmental Mortgages.”

Previous to consulting, Tulchin was Grameen Foundation’s Capital Markets Group founding staff person. There, he developed risk assessment for investing and contributed to the launch of the first product, Growth Guarantees. He has also directed a U.S. microfinance institution in Washington DC.

Tulchin has helped launch 15 social enterprises to date. His work has led to raising more than $100 million for “triple bottom line” efforts. For example, his co-written business plan for Prisma Finance at the Global Social Venture Competition received a cash prize and was used to raise $1.2 million in private equity.

Tulchin holds an MBA from the University of Washington (Seattle), and received his BA, cum laude, from Washington University (St. Louis), which included a year abroad at Sussex University in England. He serves on the boards of the Permaculture Credit Union, Better World Credits, Global Social Enterprise Competition, and Santa Fe Community Foundation’s Future Santa Fe. His interests include hiking, local food and bad jokes.

Tickets: http://tickets.commonwealthclub.org/open.asp?show=2022

WHO?

Melanie Cheng, Founder OmOrganics.org and FarmsReach.com
David Hodgson, Co-founder, the Idea Hive; Fellow, the International Futures Forum
Kevin Jones, Founder Good Capital; Convener, SOCAP
Hope Neighbor, Founder and CEO, Hope Consulting
Stannard-Stockton, CEO, Tactical Philanthropy Advisors; Columnist,Chronicle of Philanthropy; Author, Tactical Philanthropy Blog
Amy Benziger, Co-producer, SOCAP - Moderator

WHAT?

More than 1,000 people from more than 35 countries are coming to San Francisco in October, intent on showing the world that there is a real market at the intersection of money and meaning. Experts in areas as diverse as mobile, food systems, philanthropy and international development will introduce and explain the growing social enterprise investment movement. Join us for an exciting and informative preview of the ideas and issues of SOCAP 2010 in conversation with the team leading the upcoming conference.

WHERE?

MLF: Business & Leadership
Location: SF Club Office
Time: 11:30 a.m. check-in, noon program
Cost: MEMBERS FREE, $20 non-members, $7 students (with valid ID)
Program Organizer: Kevin O’Malley