Education
Making School New
In and around Pittsburgh, a cross-sector network sponsors approaches to education that blend technology and peer-to-peer collaboration.
Suzie Boss
Suzie Boss is a journalist and consultant from Portland, Ore., who focuses on the power of teaching and learning to improve lives and transform communities. Co-author of Reinventing Project-Based Learning: Your Field Guide to Real-World Projects in the Digital Age, she is a regular contributor to Edutopia and is on the national faculty of the Buck Institute for Education. Her next book, on innovation in K-12 education, is scheduled for publication in spring 2012.
Nonprofits & NGOs
Serving Up Data
The Human Needs Index offers complex, near-real-time information on how people across the United States use social services.
Energy
Sunshine Snapshot
An online tool called Project Sunroof provides homeowners with a clear picture of whether they should go solar.
Philanthropy & Funding
New MOOCs for Rising Leaders
Two recent initiatives deploy online learning technology to provide training for social sector professionals on a global scale.
Cities
A Slick Vehicle for Street Food
A specially designed food cart that combines high social impact with reduced environmental impact.
Leadership
Mentoring Meets Its Match
RippleWorks helps entrepreneurs in the developing world tap the expertise of executives and engineers from Silicon Valley.
Government
Muni Bonds for All
An online platform for “microbonds” promises to make it easier for people to invest public works projects.
Nonprofits
High Tech for Dry Times
A system that combines software and sensors promises to improve farmers’ ability to manage, conserve, and lease water.
Global Issues
Credit Where It’s Due
New tools and practices are helping low-income Americans use rent payments to build up their financial profile.
Technology & Design
Crisis Tech
Listening closely to users has enabled developers to create digital tools that support responses to the recent Ebola outbreak.
Civil Society
Getting Creative About Corruption
A group in Lebanon deploys a wide range of methods—from mobile apps to street theater—to thwart bribe-taking by officials.
Government
Text the Vote
In a classic leapfrogging initiative, Libya has enabled its citizens to complete voter registration via digital messaging technology.
Arts
Booked for Revival
A combination of fresh funding and e-book technology will enable publishers to give new life to out-of-print scholarly works.
Economic Development
Source of Opportunity
Sama Group, a social enterprise that connects disadvantaged people with digital work, is expanding its reach to the United States.
Economic Development
An Incubator for Labor
Through the Workers Lab, union leaders aim to nurture “audacious ideas” that might reinvent the US labor movement.
Health
The Barber Will See You Now
Researchers are exploring an unlikely venue for serving the critical health needs of African-American men.
Nonprofit Management
Leveling the Internship Field
In Boston, a new program will give low-income college students an alternative to toiling as unpaid interns.
Technology & Design
Data Game
To leverage data science for social good, one company is working to foster a bit of healthy competition.
Environment
Airport Buzz
Amid landing strips and airline terminals, threatened bee species are finding a much-needed new habitat.
Government
Scrappy Solutions
A new regulation in Massachusetts aims to direct food waste away from landfills and toward more productive uses.
Technology & Design
Circulating the Internet
At two big-city libraries, patrons can check out a new approach to accessing a wide range of digital technology.
Environment
Taking Flight for Conservation
Despite their somewhat ominous reputation, drones are proving to have a wide range of beneficial applications.
Technology & Design
When the “Doves” Fly
A Silicon Valley start-up that operates earth-orbiting imaging satellites is making them available to social innovators.
Economic Development
Cultivating a Neglected Field
Seven lending organizations are teaming up to meet the large-scale needs of smallholder farms in the developing world.
Design Thinking
Design for Cleaner Living
A team of social innovators is devising ways to put urban India on track to a tidier future.
Health
Built WELL
Taking a lead from LEED certification, a new standard aims to promote healthy construction of homes, offices, and other structures.
Education
Mentor for America
Thanks to the New Teacher Center, beginning educators gain support that will help them thrive in a challenging profession.
Urban Development
Pop-Up Housing
In London, the YMCA is combining prefab construction with stylish design to create a new kind of affordable home.
Technology
Putting Bullies in Their Place
A Web-based initiative uses analysis of social media chatter to locate hotspots of antisocial behavior.
Government
A Mandate for Responsibility
In the wake of a recently passed law, companies in India are figuring out how to meet their CSR requirement.
Urban Development
Safe at Home
Thanks to ROC USA, residents of mobile home parks can gain a real stake in the places where they live.
Health
Women at the Wheel
In Mozambique, an effort to train women as ambulance drivers enhances public safety and fosters opportunity.
Impact Investing
Funding the Sun
Village Power Finance gives members of nonprofit associations a novel way to pay for solar conversion projects.
Economic Development
Lots of Opportunity
An online platform helps city governments to discover, organize, and market publicly owned property.
Urban Development
Bike-Sharing Goes Small
Local bike-lending arrangements offer an alternative to bigger, more complex bike-sharing systems.
Civil Society
Citizen Chronicles
A program in Alberta, Canada, showcases the way that people with disabilities contribute actively to their communities. Includes magazine extras.
Technology & Design
Libraries as Laboratories
In Accra, Ghana, social entrepreneurs are working to reinvent the public library for the 21st century.
Human Rights
Blurred Images, Better Futures
Software from a group called Ultrasafe Ultrasound promises to make it harder to practice sex-selective abortion.
Urban Development
Helping Cities Remain Strong
A $100 million foundation initiative aims to foster urban resilience in the face of disaster.