A recent report, "Wireless Technology for Social Change: Trends in NGO Mobile Use," by the United Nations Foundation and The Vodafone Group Foundation highlights emerging trends by NGOs in the use of mobile technology to affect social change in global public health, humanitarian assistance and environmental conservation. While this report offers some great insights on how to use technology and telecom tools to address some of the world's toughest problems, it leaves out one of the most important challenges that NGOs, and most ICT for Development projects face; how toensure sustainability.

To shed some light on this tension, I spoke with Ken Banks, the founder of FrontlineSMS (a tool for mass text messaging) about sustainability and the choices he is currently grappling with. FrontlineSMS was initially funded by Ken's hard work, and more recently by the MacArthur Foundation, to fulfill his belief that "all non-profits, whatever their size and wherever they operate, should be given the opportunity to implement the latest mobile technologies in their work." Today, FrontlineSMS is free for non-profits and is being used by over 40 NGOs in programs around the world.

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I first learned of the Social Capital Markets conference from organizer Kevin Jones, a friend whom I've often run into at various conferences through the years. Last year, Kevin - a principal at Good Capital - began to think that it was time to break down silos and get various 'social enterprise' factions to start talking. The result? A social capital markets conference that's bringing together both well-known and emerging leaders in this sector. (We first wrote about SoCap08 back in July.)

The conference will be held in San Francisco from October 13-15, with speakers including Jed Emerson, Bob Annibale, Premal Shah and Andrew Kassoy. These are just a few of the can't miss folks slated to attend. (I would be remiss if I didn't mention that my Acumen Fund colleague, Sasha Dichter, is also slated to speak.)

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