Summer 2012

Issue

Summer 2012

Volume 10, Number 3

The United States spends far more money on health care than any other country, yet Americans are among the least healthy people in the industrialized world. Simply spending more money is not the answer. What’s needed is a creative new approach, such as the one outlined by MacArthur Genius Grant winners Rebecca Onie and Paul Farmer, along with coauthor Heidi Behforouz, in “Realigning Health with Care: Lessons in Delivering More With Less,” the cover article in the summer 2012 issue of Stanford Social Innovation Review.

Features

Social Entrepreneurship

In Search of the Hybrid Ideal

By Julie Battilana, Matthew Lee, John Walker, & Cheryl Dorsey 18

Researchers examine the rise of hybrid organizations that combine aspects of nonprofits and for-profits and the challenges hybrids face.

Nonprofit Management

Local Forces for Good

By Leslie R. Crutchfield & Heather McLeod-Grant 2

The authors of the influential book Forces for Good examine how their framework for creating high-impact nonprofits applies to local and smaller organizations.

Environment

A Big Deal for Conservation

By Larry Linden, Steve McCormick, Ivan Barkhorn, Roger Ullman, Guillermo Castilleja, Dan Winterson, & Lee Green

A group of conservationists, former bankers, and management consultants have imported ideas from Wall Street to create a new way to protect large ecosystems.

Global Issues

Realigning Health with Care

By Rebecca Onie, Paul Farmer & Heidi Behforouz 16

The misalignment between the expansive goal of “health” and a cramped definition of “care” has cost the United States untold lives and treasure. Yet realignment is in reach.

What’s Next

Business

A Lifeline for Mothers

By Suzie Boss

Merck for Mothers—a 10-year, $500 million initiative—aims to improve the odds for vulnerable women around the globe.

Technology & Design

Coding for a Better World

By Suzie Boss

SocialCoding4Good is developing an online platform to match skilled employees from the technology sector with causes that need technical help.

Social Entrepreneurship

Delivering the Goods

By Suzie Boss

Entrepreneurs are setting up shop in the nation's urban food deserts.

Technology & Design

Virtual Models for Real Issues

By Suzie Boss

Agent-based modeling—a form of computer visualization—is being used to analyze a range of public health issues.

Field Report

Economic Development

Leveraging Research for China

By Phuong Ly

The Rural Education Action Project uses its studies about China’s poorest places to influence government policy.

Health

The End of Polio in India

By Esha Chhabra 4

An immense cross-sector partnership is responsible for the immunization success story.

Economic Development

Personal Attention Reduces Poverty

By Phuong Ly 5

Circles, a national program for helping families get out of poverty, taps an underused resource: middle-class support groups.

Case Study

Nonprofits

Networking a City

By Marianne Hughes & Didi Goldenhar 4

The Barr Fellows Network is changing the way work gets done in Boston’s large and entrenched social sector.

Viewpoint

Impact Investing

Big Society Capital Marks a Paradigm Shift

By Sir Ronald Cohen

How the UK’s social investment bank will harness entrepreneurship and capital to solve societal problems.

Education

Path to a New Africa

By Patrick Awuah 23

To change Africa’s future, we must change the mindset of young Africans in college today.

Measuring Social Impact

Get Feedback

By Mia Birdsong & Perla Ni

It is essential to build direct consumer feedback into funding criteria for government and nonprofit programs serving low-income people.

Global Issues

What’s Sex Got to Do with It?

By Kavita N. Ramdas 40

An inconvenient truth is hiding behind the current excitement about educating girls.

Research

Economic Development

Can Management Consulting Help Small Firms Grow?

By Annie Duflo & Dean Karlan 9

Economic development efforts are best served by testing and refining assumptions about what works.

Health

Focused Cardiac Care

By Corinna Wu

What happens when hospitals specialize?

Education

Lifetime Inequality

By Corinna Wu

The variation in lifetime earnings and wealth is largely determined by skills acquired by age 23.

Civic Engagement

Civic Education Through Social Networks

By Roberta Kwok

In Kenya, civic education programs reached 4.5 million people in advance of the 2002 election.

Book Reviews

Review

Social Entrepreneurship

Techno-Optimists Beware

Review By Timothy Ogden 2

Two books argue that entrepreneurs and technology are transforming the global economy.

Review

Civic Engagement

Egypt’s No. 1 Net Activist

Review By Micah Sifry

A riveting memoir by Egyptian revolutionary—and Google marketing executive—Wael Ghonim.

Zeronauts:_Breaking_the_Sustainability_Barrier_John_Elkington

Review

Social Entrepreneurship

Sustainability and Self-Interest

Review By Matthew E. Kahn

John Elkington argues in his latest book that a new set of entrepreneurs in business, government, and universities are reinventing capitalism.

Review

Economic Development

The Emerging Market Era

Review By Paul van der Boor

A "reverse innovation" guru provides anecdotes and advice about how to succeed in emerging markets.

Review

Leadership

Techno-Optimists Beware

Review By Timothy Ogden

Two books argue that entrepreneurs and technology are transforming the global economy.

Q&A

Impact Investing

Elizabeth Littlefield

By Johanna Mair

Elizabeth Littlefield heads up OPIC, a federal agency that helps steer billions of dollars of private investment capital to developing countries.

Last Look

Health

Safer Deliveries

By Tamara Straus

The Manoshi Project in Bangladesh is proving that 90 percent of pregnancy-related deaths are preventable.

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