Summer 2011

Issue

Summer 2011

Volume 9, Number 3

A growing number of corporations are embracing a new way of doing business that puts societal issues at the core of the company’s strategy and operations. This approach—Shared Value—differs from traditional corporate social responsibility, which is often built around regulatory compliance, charitable giving, and reputation building. In the summer 2011 issue of Stanford Social Innovation Review we explore this issue with ten business leaders in the article, “Roundtable on Shared Value.”

Features

Nonprofit Management

The Challenge of Organizational Learning

By Katie Smith Milway & Amy Saxton 8

A recent study found three common barriers to knowledge sharing across nonprofits and their networks, as well as ways and means to overcome them.

Socially Responsible Business

Achieving Sustainability Through Integrated Reporting

By Robert G. Eccles & Daniela Saltzman

Integrated reporting—the combination of a company’s ﬁnancial and nonﬁnancial performance in one document—is a crucial step to creating a more sustainable society.

Nonprofit Management

Local Empowerment Through Rapid Results

By Nadim Matta & Peter Morgan

Why local ownership and commitment are the exception in most development efforts—and what development professionals can do about this problem.

Foundations

The Elusive Craft of Evaluating Advocacy

By Steven Teles & Mark Schmitt 4

There are unconventional methods one can use to evaluate advocacy organizations and make strategic investments in that arena.

What’s Next

Economic Development

Antipoverty Apps

By Suzie Boss 13

mPowering has created an app that awards goods and services to individuals facing extreme poverty when they make beneficial choices.

Intermediaries

Matchmaking for Philanthropists

By Suzie Boss

Foundation Source Access, the new eHarmony for family foundations, gives smaller donors access to a wide variety of innovative funding opportunities.

Health

Mothers of Invention

By Suzie Boss 1

Maternova is getting hundreds of life saving innovations to the front lines in developing countries using a new online platform.

Nonprofit Management

Thriving on Failure

By Suzie Boss

Engineers Without Borders’ new website, Admitting Failure, gives new life to “good failures.” It aims to help organizations learn from others’ mistakes.

Field Report

Measuring Social Impact

Amplifying Local Voices

By Suzie Boss 17

GlobalGiving’s storytelling project turns anecdotes into useful data.

Microfinance

Crowdsourcing Microfinance

By Kathy O. Brozek

The Grameen Foundation’s Bankers Without Borders initiative applies skills-based volunteering to poverty alleviation.

Economic Development

One Acre at a Time

By Corey Binns

One Acre Fund feeds the world’s poor by helping them feed themselves.

Case Study

Global Issues

The Problem With Fair Trade Coffee

By Colleen Haight 29

Fair Trade-certified coffee is growing in sales, but strict certification requirements are resulting in uneven economic advantages for coffee growers and lower quality coffee for consumers.

Viewpoint

Socially Responsible Business

Being the Only B

By Terena Bell 6

The owner of the only certified B Corporation in Kentucky assesses the pros and cons of the certification.

Government

Social Innovation in Washington, D.C.

By Michele Jolin 3

A look at what’s needed next to create the right policy environment for innovation and results.

Economic Development

The Miracle of Financial Inclusion

By Roshaneh Zafar

The founder of the Kashf Foundation argues that microfinance can improve the lives of Pakistan’s next generation.

Research

Philanthropy

The Emotions of Aid

By Jessica Ruvinsky 3

“One death is a tragedy; 1 million is a statistic,” Joseph Stalin is supposed to have said. The more people we see suffering, the less we care.

Health

Doctor in Your Pocket

By Jessica Ruvinsky 1

New and valuable mHealth apps are coming out all the time. What sort of open architecture can support this wave of innovation?

Government

From Graft to Golf

By Jessica Ruvinsky

Lobbying and bribery are both time-honored ways to seek influence, but there is an important difference between them.

Nonprofit Management

Making the News

By Jessica Ruvinsky

The media introduce social movements to the masses, but how do social movements make it into the media?

Civil Society

The New Bottom Billion

By Jessica Ruvinsky

According to a new analysis, most of the world’s poor no longer live in the poorest countries.

Environment

Virtue or Else

By Jessica Ruvinsky

Under the EPA’s Audit Policy, violators who voluntarily report themselves can get certain penalties reduced or waived if they commit to ongoing self-regulation.

Book Reviews

Review

Philanthropy

Ethical Philanthropy

Review By Chip Pitts 2

Giving Well: The Ethics of Philanthropy by Patricia Illingworth, Thomas Pogge, & Leif Wenar

Review

Civil Society

Just Instincts

Review By Roberto De Vogli

The Fair Society: The Science of Human Nature and the Pursuit of Social Justice by Peter Corning

Review

Economic Development

New School Economics

Review By Kevin Starr 2

More Than Good Intentions: How a New Economics Is Helping to Solve Global Poverty by Dean Karlan & Jacob Appel

Review

Philanthropy

Philanthropic Practices

Review By Matthew Bishop 2

Do More Than Give: The Six Practices of Donors Who Change the World by Leslie R. Crutchfield, John V. Kania, & Mark R. Kramer

Review

Nonprofit Management

The Holy Grail for Nonprofits

Review By Jim Schorr 2

Nonprofit Sustainability: Making Strategic Decisions for Financial Viability by Jeanne Bell, Jan Masaoka & Steve Zimmerman

Q&A

Socially Responsible Business

Roundtable on Shared Value

By John Kania & Mark Kramer 5

Executives from 10 major corporations discuss the innovative ways that they are putting societal issues at the core of their companies’ strategy and operations.

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