Engaging Employees to Create a Sustainable Business

By Paul Polman & CB Bhattacharya 12

The key to creating a vibrant and sustainable company is to find ways to get all employees personally engaged in day-to-day corporate sustainability efforts.

A New Model for Citizen Engagement

By Myung J. Lee & Peter Levine 1

By transforming municipal volunteering programs into “impact volunteering” efforts, leaders and citizens can lay a foundation for civic renewal.

How Grantmaking Can Create Adaptive Organizations

By Douglas Easterling 2

Philanthropists should create collaborative relationships with grantees that cultivate critical thinking, learning, and adaptation.

Using Data for Action and for Impact

By Jim Fruchterman 19

How nonprofits and social businesses can use data to inform decision-making and evaluate performance.

The Future of Prize Philanthropy

By Renya Reed Wasson 4

In more and more cases, prize competitions provide recipients with resources to pursue their work even before they complete a proposed project.

There Is No Such Thing as a Green Product

By Trevor Zink & Roland Geyer 11

Touting products like LEDs and recycled plastic packaging as “green” is misleading, because it fails to account for their effects on markets and consumer behavior and for the resulting environmental consequences. The authors offer what they say is a better approach: measuring the overall "net green" impact of the product.

Community Engagement Matters (Now More Than Ever)

By Melody Barnes & Paul Schmitz 17

In adopting data-driven practices, leaders must design and implement programs in ways that engage community members directly in the work of social change.

New Approaches to Ed-Tech Funding

By Julie Petersen & Shauntel Poulson 1

Until recently, both foundations and venture capital firms were wary of directing resources toward education technology startups. Here’s how “blended capital” is expanding the ed-tech field.

The Risky Rhetoric of Female Risk Aversion

By Sarah Kaplan & Natassia Walley 4

Women are seen as less likely to engage in risky behavior and more likely to use money prudently. But this stereotype can lead to discrimination against women.

Making Big Bets for Social Change

By William Foster, Gail Perreault, Alison Powell, & Chris Addy 11

How to close the gap between what donors say they want to achieve and where they actually put their money.