Social Innovations
Women Hold Both Sky and Solutions
Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide by Sheryl WuDunn and Nicholas Kristof
Review
Social Enterprises - Most Popular
Podcast
Mark Pinsky - Social Enterprise and Community Development
In the social enterprise sector, community development financial institutions have become important vehicles for advancing the well-being of communities through market-based mechanisms. In this audio interview with Stanford Center for Social Innovation correspondent Sheela Sethuraman, CEO Mark Pinsky talks about what his organization, the Opportunity Finance Network, does to support such institutions in improving people's lives in urban, rural, and reservation-based markets.
Research: Strong Women, Strong Sector
The more empowered a country's women, the more vibrant its nonprofit sector.
Grow Your Own
Forget about luring big companies with tax incentives and subsidized space. Chris Gibbons focuses Littleton, Colorado's efforts on growing home-town businesses.
Podcast
Janet Tafel - Healing Human Rights Abuses with Social Enterprise
Hagar was the biblical woman who became the victim of neglect and violence when she was cast out of the fold of Abraham and Sarah. In Cambodia, Afghanistan, and Vietnam, thousands of "Hagars" and their children suffer poverty, trafficking, and other human rights abuses. Janet Tafel, who was invited by the Center for Social Innovation at Stanford, discusses how her organization, Hagar USA, helps individuals restore their lives through holistic healing, community integration, and social entrepreneurship.
Podcast
Premal Shah - Scaling a Social Enterprise through Crowdsourcing
Kiva has created an online marketplace that allows ordinary citizens to help specific entrepreneurs around the world to thrive with as little as $25. In this Stanford Center for Social Innovation sponsored audio interview, Kiva President Premal Shah discusses how the social enterprise relies on bazaar management techniques to carry out the organization's everyday functions. He describes the benefits of cost reduction and execution time and talks about the possibilities bazaar management opens for social entrepreneurship and the for-profit sector in general.
Podcast
Sam Goldman - Lighting the Way to Economic Development
Let there be light! That's Sam Goldman's motto, and he's taking it around the world. The founder of d.light design talks with Stanford Center for Social Innovation correspondent Sheela Sethuraman about how he is bringing affordable, ecologically sustainable electricity and lighting to billions who are now operating in the dark. In this audio interview, he details aspects of the design, function, marketing, and distribution of the organization's products, as well as the kind of impact the social enterprise is having in some of the most remote, poor areas.
Podcast
Jane Leu, Chuck Slaughter, and Morgan Simon - Starting and Growing a Social Enterprise
With the Obama administration's focus on social enterprise as a means of solving some of our most pressing problems, the social entrepreneur has emerged as the chief change agent of our time. In this panel discussion, part of the Stanford 2009 Entrepreneurship Week, leaders of several vital organizations talk about the motivations, successes, and challenges associated with running a social enterprise. They consider what the economic downturn has meant to their missions, and they offer practical advice to aspiring entrepreneurs.