Design thinking isn’t just for designers anymore. This process of generating, sharing, and prototyping ideas turns out to produce innovative solutions in far-flung areas not usually in the purview of designers. In the winter 2010 issue of Stanford Social Innovation Review, explore the exciting ways nonprofits are putting design thinking to use in such diverse fields as health care, poverty, and energy.
Sign in or subscribe to view the digital edition and download the PDF
When disaster strikes, governments often rely on nonprofits and businesses to help with relief efforts. But making up for the public sector's shortcomings is neither an appropriate nor effective use of the private sector's strengths.
To prepare for future financial downturns, nonprofits should treat endowments as rainy day funds, not cut programs to preserve the endowment.
By working closely with the clients and consumers, design thinking allows high-impact solutions to social problems to bubble up from below rather than being imposed from the top.
To enrich the bottom of the pyramid, bankers to the poor should make saving money easier by using the latest findings from economics and psychology.
ParkScan, an interactive Web tool, enages residents as park monitors.
To halt the greying of municipal government, the City Hall Fellows program offers recent college graduates a year-long stint working on everyday challenges such as transportation, public works, and housing.
Nobody wants to be the biggest energy hog on the block.
Artists, musicians, writers, and other creative types are asking the public to underwrite their dreams via an online fundraising platform.
Build Change is shaking up construction practices in earthquake-prone areas.
Recycla Chile, Latin America’s first e-waste recycling company, reclaims value from discarded electronics and marginalized people.
During its first 10 years, Creative Capital has pumped $14 million into 324 projects from a range of artistic disciplines. But Creative Capital doesn’t just fund projects, it builds careers.
Forget about luring big companies with tax incentives and subsidized space. Chris Gibbons focuses Littleton, Colorado's efforts on growing home-town businesses.
Over the past 17 years, the Forum for African Women Educationalists has delivered high-quality education to millions of girls across 35 African countries.
What are social marketers to do when their target audience couldn’t care less about the change they want to make? Here's how one group got everyday people to care about alternative energy.
By paying so much attention to managing their own risks, philanthropists are no longer attending to the marginalized people who risk so much to make change happen.
The seven healthy habits of nonprofits most likely to survive the economic downturn.
How do nonprofits find and keep workers even in troubled economic times?
A mere hint of affiliation is sufficient to increase helping.
What happens when large companies receive resolutions from their shareholders pressing them to take better care of the environment?
Children between the ages of 8 and 12 are an energetic, useful, yet largely overlooked pool of volunteer labor.
The more empowered a country's women, the more vibrant its nonprofit sector.
A new study from Indonesia shows that extortionists respond to market forces in much the same way as do lawful businesspeople.
The mystery is over: A 10-city comparison of greenhouse gas emissions per capita pinpoints the sources of those emissions.
Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide by Sheryl WuDunn and Nicholas Kristof
Whole Earth Discipline: An Ecopragmatist Manifesto by Stewart Brand
The Design of Business: Why Design Thinking Is the Next Competitive Advantage by Roger L. Martin
Jeff Raikes takes over the Gates Foundation at a turbulent time when philanthropic resources are down and social needs are up.
Photographer Toni Greaves recently traveled to the Czech Republic to document the work of organizations such as Sports Without Barriers, which equips disabled children to participate in sports.
