Fall 2011

Issue

Fall 2011

Volume 9, Number 4

In the fall 2011 issue of the Stanford Social Innovation Review we bring you an in-depth report—“Too Good to Fail”—on what had been one of America’s oldest and most important social enterprises, ShoreBank Corp., and the events that led to its recent collapse. Long before anyone coined terms like shared value, blended value, or double bottom line, the people at ShoreBank were busy building a for-profit company that doggedly pursued a social mission.

Features

Fundraising

Finding Your Funding Model

By Peter Kim, Gail Perreault, & William Foster 11

Four guidelines provide a road map for leaders to identify and develop the right funding model for their organization.

Civil Society

Circles of Change

By Tracy A. Thompson 6

Lending circles, self-help groups, and study circles are among the oldest and most effective tools for creating personal and social change.

Education

The Missing Link in School Reform

By Carrie R. Leana 92

American educators, policymakers, and philanthropists are overselling the role of the highly skilled individual teacher and undervaluing the benefits that come from teacher collaborations.

Business

Sourcing Locally for Impact

By Ethan B. Kapstein & René Kim

By mapping a company’s relationship to the economy in which it operates, businesses can do much to advance their strategic objectives and advance local economic growth.

What’s Next

Environment

Trawling for Trash

By Suzie Boss

An EU Fisheries Commission Project pays fisherman to remove plastic debris from the Mediterranean Sea.

Economic Development

It Takes a General Contractor

By Suzie Boss 1

Nuru International identifies proven poverty-reduction programs and aims to take them to scale.

Intermediaries

Sharing Evaluations

By Suzie Boss

Organizations that report on charities are increasingly collaborative.

Education

Student Retention App

By Suzie Boss

A new Facebook app helps incoming freshmen connect—but within the closed community of their college.

Field Report

Education

Rapid Response for Education

By Suzie Boss 1

The National Math and Science Initiative aims to avert the crisis in secondary school education by replicating proven programs.

Foundations

When the Big Bet Fails

By Suzie Boss

The Northwest Area Foundation learns—and shares—hard lessons from a 10-year initiative.

Urban Development

Networking for Sustainable Transport

By Brandon Keim

EMBARQ, a network of sustainable transportation experts, has grown quickly,
thanks to impressive fundraising and the design of a model program.

Case Study

Socially Responsible Business

Too Good to Fail

By James E. Post & Fiona S. Wilson 9

In August 2010 the US government closed ShoreBank, one of the country’s leading social enterprises. Why did ShoreBank fail?

Viewpoint

Urban Development

Revitalizing Struggling American Cities

By Ben Hecht 6

Living Cities is working with five US municipalities to develop an ecosystem for solving urban problems.

Water

Water Thinking

By Rajesh Shah 13

The Peer Water Exchange manages diverse solutions and resources to fight the global water crisis.

Foundations

Focusing on Advocacy

By Sushma Raman 1

The time is now for foundations, large and small, to engage in public policy.

Health

Partnering for a Cure

By Scott Johnson 1

The Myelin Repair Foundation is creating a process for the rapid development of new treatments and cures.

Research

Social Entrepreneurship

Cadaver Commerce

By Jessica Ruvinsky

The moral legitimacy of a new market can come as much from how you sell something as from exactly what you’re selling.

Nonprofit Management

How Leaders Encourage Innovation

By Jessica Ruvinsky

Transformational leaders capitalize on the creativity that employees have.

Nonprofit Management

Improving Teamwork

By Jessica Ruvinsky

Collectivist, group-oriented teams do better work.

Nonprofits

Nonprofits Aren’t More Commercial

By Jessica Ruvinsky

A new study finds that nonprofits are not becoming more commercialized.

Water

Spring Water Protection Improves Health

By Jessica Ruvinsky

Living near safe drinking water is not the same as drinking safe water.

Health

Undisclosed Pharma Contributions

By Jessica Ruvinsky

Most health advocacy organizations do not report industry funding.

Book Reviews

Review

Economic Development

Radically Small Thinking

Review By Timothy Ogden 3

Poor Economics: A Radical Rethinking of the Way to Fight Global Poverty by Abhijit Banerjee & Esther Duflo

Review

Nonprofit Management

Scaling Play

Review By Paul Connolly

KaBOOM! How One Man Built a Movement to Save Play by Darell Hammond

Review

Nonprofits

Transformational Networks

Review By Patrick McNamara 1

Global Action Networks: Creating Our Future Together by Steve Waddell

Review

Fundraising

Supplicants No More

Review By David Simpson 1

The End of Fundraising: Raise More Money by Selling Your Impact by Jason Saul

Q&A

Corporate Philanthropy

Chris West

By Johanna Mair 1

Chris West leverages the assets of the Shell Foundation and its corporate parent to improve the lives of low-income people in the developing world.

Innovating for More Affordable Health Care

browse past issues all issues

Free Weekly eNewsletter

latest newsletter
Magazine Sections
- Features
  
  New and in-depth explorations of solutions to social, environmental, or organizational problems
- What’s Next
  
  New approaches to social change
- Field Report
  
  Profiles of innovative work
- Case Study
  
  An inside look at one organization
- Viewpoint
  
  Insights from the front lines
- Research
  
  Highlights from scholarly journals
- Book Reviews
  
  Reviews of new and notable titles
- Editor’s Note
  
  Perspectives on the print magazine issues from SSIR's editor-in-chief
- SSIR Online
  
  Takeaways from SSIR's digital channels
- Last Look
  
  Images that inspire
- Sponsored Supplements
  
  Collections of articles on a single topic, funded by a sponsor
SSIR is published by the
Stanford Center on Philanthropy and Civil
Society, at Stanford University.