Stanford Social Innovation Review

Most nonprofits don’t know how to lobby and, worse, think that it entails cutting shady deals with sleazy characters. Yet lobbying is nothing more than educating legislators – a right that our democracy guarantees. To make change, nonprofits must learn to lobby. And who knows? They may even learn to love it.

A Guide to Reclaiming the Commons.

How CitiStat’s hard data and straight talk saved Baltimore.

Responsible Wealth, a Boston-based nonprofit, is convincing many affluent Americans to challenge the very rules that made them rich. Far from mere check writers or “limousine liberals,” these wealthy activists work against their self-interest to stamp out inequality at its source: unfair laws and policies. Their unique strategy of using privilege to contest privilege not only has attracted the rich and famous to their ranks, but also has bent the ears of senators and CEOs.

Most people think of networking as a means for advancing their own self-interest.  But successful social innovators take a different tack, nurturing close ties between members and infusing their networks with a common set of values.  As a result, their networks power both personal transformations and large-scale social changes. 

California’s secretary of education tackles the nation’s largest school system.

An HIV organization in Botswana provides lessons in cooperation.

How a German nonprofit is repurposing sex workers’ skills.

How donors should think about nonprofit efficiency.

Vanishing NGOs in Bosnia leave lessons in their wake.

How retired healthcare professionals are taking care of the uninsured.

The Miwoks were exterminated from Yosemite Valley.

Why the U.S. and Europe have such different social spending policies.

Indigenous people are being displaced to create wilderness areas, to the detriment of all.

American charity shortchanges the poor, and public policy is partly to blame.