Innovative ways organizations can work together to increase their overall reach and efficacy (more)
America's primary and secondary education lags behind that of other advanced countries. In this panel discussion, hosted by the New Republic, experts argue that improving the quality of education would generate enough economic growth to pay for the entire education system itself. They suggest catching up will require cooperation, national standards, better incentives for teachers, and accountability.
The Lodestar Foundation supports nonprofit collaborations, mergers, and other cooperative activities as a major strategy.
Aid organizations around the world are learning that they can solve their technology and infrastructure problems faster and cheaper together than on their own. Enabling that collaboration is NetHope, a nonprofit information technology consortium helping NGOs establish the technology "ecosystems" they need to serve constituencies in more than 150 countries. Eric Nee interviews Bill Brindley, CEO of NetHope, on how the consortium got started, how it works, and how it is expanding its mission.
What does it take to keep a large foundation focused on evaluation for self-improvement? As part of the Stanford Social Innovation Review's conference on evaluation, Carol Larson, CEO of the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, shares tools, lessons, and strategies for assessing performance to create a "culture of inquiry." Organizational qualities such as innovation, collaboration among stakeholders, and freedom to make "mistakes" are critical elements to foster an effective learning enterprise.
LaserMonks, a multimillion-dollar enterprise, sells ink-jet cartridges and other office supplies online to support its Cistercian abbey in Wisconsin and to help others.
In this interview with James A. Phills Jr., the Stanford Social Innovation Review's academic editor, former presidential advisor David Gergen discusses his views on social innovation, why social entrepreneurs should be more engaged in politics, and how the federal government can work with and even fund social entrepreneurs.
Rewarding the socially responsible with customers.
Comprehensive reintegration programs will lower the U.S. recidivism rate.
How companies can respect human rights.
Social entrepreneurship and social enterprise have become popular and positive rallying points for those trying to improve the world, but social innovation is a better vehicle for understanding and creating social change in all of its manifestations.
