Voluntary carbon offsets allow people to invest in projects that allegedly counteract their greenhouse gas emissions. But can voluntary offsets help slow global warming? Or are offsets a way for consumers to buy their way out of bad feelings?
Vinod Khosla, Silicon Valley venture capitalist, says he used to be an environmentalist, but is now more of a "pragmentalist." In this Stanford Center for Social Innovation sponsored audio lecture, Khosla turns conventional wisdom about what passes for "green technology" on its head. He takes a hard look at how innovations such as hybrid cars and fuel cell buses may, in fact, be exacerbating our problems, and offers concrete, iconoclastic suggestions as to what science, business, and government should be focusing on instead.
The Lodestar Foundation supports nonprofit collaborations, mergers, and other cooperative activities as a major strategy.
How does an organization get through the evaluation process and live to tell about it? In this panel, part of the Stanford Social Innovation Review's conference on evaluation, funders and fundees on both sides of the table from a variety of organizations in the areas of education and social services talk about what it was like to be in the trenches of successful evaluation processes. They tease out common success factors, including how to work collaboratively across sectors and with multiple constituents.
What does it take to keep a large foundation focused on evaluation for self-improvement? As part of the Stanford Social Innovation Review's conference on evaluation, Carol Larson, CEO of the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, shares tools, lessons, and strategies for assessing performance to create a "culture of inquiry." Organizational qualities such as innovation, collaboration among stakeholders, and freedom to make "mistakes" are critical elements to foster an effective learning enterprise.
Our understanding of community can help funders and evaluators identify, understand, and strengthen the communities they work with.
Too many people believe social value is objective, fixed, and stable, when in fact it is subjective, malleable, and variable.
These leaders’ assets go beyond experiences of oppression or marginalization to include the connection, meaning, and joy they can draw on from their respective cultures and communities.
A few nonprofits are using social media to fundamentally change the way they work and increase their social impact.
A clear definition of equity would seem paramount to galvanizing philanthropy into action around this increasingly used term—but the field is only beginning to explore what it really means.
