Election Critical for Nonprofits, Giving
Nonprofits' policy wish list for the new administration.
Nonprofits' policy wish list for the new administration.
Even in bad times, how can we afford not to make social improvements?
The 2009 presidential election was a divisive affair.
When President Bush set limits on stem cell research in 2001, millions of families who were hopeful that such research could help alleviate the diseases of their loved ones were devastated. In this Stanford Center for Social Innovation audio lecture, attorney Robert Klein discusses his efforts to author and push through legislation in California which, so far, has succeeded in advancing such research. Sharing personal and political struggles, Klein movingly underscores the urgency behind his quest.
In this interview with James A. Phills Jr., the Stanford Social Innovation Review's academic editor, former presidential advisor David Gergen discusses his views on social innovation, why social entrepreneurs should be more engaged in politics, and how the federal government can work with and even fund social entrepreneurs.
Despite the hoopla over microfinance, it doesn't cure poverty. But stable jobs do. If societies are serious about helping the poorest of the poor, they should stop investing in microfinance and start supporting large, labor-intensive industries.
Social entrepreneurship and social enterprise have become popular and positive rallying points for those trying to improve the world, but social innovation is a better vehicle for understanding and creating social change in all of its manifestations.
Market solutions to poverty, which include services and products targeting consumers at the “bottom of the pyramid,” portray poor people as creative entrepreneurs and discerning consumers. Yet this rosy view of poverty-stricken people is not only wrong, but also harmful.
A new approach to measuring poverty is needed, one that accounts for multiple factors such as housing, and regional economic differences.
Jeffrey Sachs believes we must lift a billion-plus people out of poverty while reducing our impact on the environment.