20 Years of SSIR

(Illustration by David Plunkert) 

This issue of Stanford Social Innovation Review marks our 20th anniversary. When I joined SSIR in 2006, it was a more modest enterprise. We published a quarterly magazine and a website, where we posted PDFs of our magazine articles. Today, SSIR provides many more ways for its audience and contributors to interact: webinars, conferences, podcasts, original online articles, local-language editions, e-books, and soon, books in print.

While the array of media products that SSIR offers has changed, our mission has not. As summarized in the first issue of the magazine, “SSIR is dedicated to presenting usable knowledge that will help those who do the important work of improving society do it even better.” Today, we remain committed to providing a platform where people from all parts of society—nonprofit, government, and business—can come together to share new ideas and practices, critique existing ones, and learn from one another.

When SSIR launched, we mostly brought together social change leaders from across the United States. Over time, we have grown to become a convening space for people from around the world. Close to half of the people who read SSIR online in English come from outside the United States. And we now have partners in Beijing, Seoul, Tokyo, São Paulo, Abu Dhabi, and Monterrey, Mexico, who publish SSIR in their local language. These publications not only translate SSIR articles; they also offer original articles, books, and virtual and in-person convenings for people engaged in social change in their own countries and regions.

Just as SSIR has changed, so has the world around us. Today, there are many more publications that cover the field of social innovation, such as ImpactAlpha and India Development Review. Newspapers and popular magazines now cover the field as well. You can read articles about ESG investing in The Asahi Shimbun, altruistic philanthropy in The New Yorker, or a global development NGO in The Guardian. While this is a good thing for the field of social innovation and for society, it presents new challenges for SSIR and requires us to continually evolve and change.

The Spring issue not only marks our 20th anniversary but also marks two important transitions on our staff. It is the last issue for our publisher, Michael Voss, who joined SSIR in 2017. He is leaving to become the publisher of Science News, a nonprofit publication that celebrated its 100th anniversary last year. Michael’s contributions to SSIR are many, but one area where he has played an important role is in helping us expand our global presence.

This is also the last issue for our art director, David Herbick, who has been with SSIR since 2008. He is leaving to enjoy a well-earned retirement. When David joined us, he created a new look, layout, and logo for the magazine, which have gone through changes over the last 15 years but still retain much of that same identity.

Transitions such as these are normal at any organization. The new publisher and art director will bring in fresh ideas that will change the way that SSIR looks and the way it operates, which is a good thing and comes at an important point in our history as we embark on our next 20 years.

Read more stories by Eric Nee.